Americans wary of crypto and AI despite millions spent on politics

Crypto has already taken a head start, like a program launched before everyone else on an overheated server. No one can really deny his imprint on finance, campaigns, pocketbooks and laws. AI, too, has established itself in human life with its algorithms, its promises and its bugs. However, behind these two gleaming engines, public confidence remains in “blue screen” mode, cold, suspicious, almost refractory, like in front of a console which stubbornly refuses to restart.

Crypto: the old American trust bug

Americans are said to have lost $11 billion to crypto scams last year. It is completely understandable that this Politico poll acts like a scanner without filter. According to Public First, 45% of Americans believe crypto investing is not worth the risk, even with high returns. Almost half trust a traditional bank more than a crypto platform, while only 17% think the opposite.

For a crypto industry that talks about freedom, decentralization and a better future, the verdict seriously stings. More than half of respondents also say they have never purchased or traded cryptocurrencies, and do not want to do so.

So the problem is not just volatility or past scandals. It is a cultural barrier, thick, sticky, almost chemical. The crypto market advances with lobbying, funds and regulated products, but the average user remains in front of the lab door, coat closed, eyebrow raised.

The technological power exists, but popular support has not yet followed. Without trust, even the most beautiful protocol looks like a suspicious black box, beautiful on the outside, opaque on the inside, impossible to debug politically. And it gets expensive very quickly.

AI scares voters like a prototype without a red button

Artificial intelligence is no more reassuring. The same poll indicates that 44% of Americans consider AI to be developing too quickly, like a model launched without guardrails into a room full of cables. Two-thirds want Congress to impose strict rules or broad principles of oversight.

The fear is not only technical: it affects employment, culture, economic power and this unpleasant feeling of being swallowed by a machine that learns faster than its creators. Chris Murphy sums up this fault line with useful bluntness:

The Democrats' best approach is to make their spending a political issue. People don't want AI companies to crush them culturally and economically. They don't trust crypto.

Chris Murphy, source: Politico

In this setting, AI fascinates like a particle accelerator, but it worries like a poorly secured prototype. Voters want progress, yes, but with fire extinguisher, manual and red button. The promise alone is no longer enough in the American ballot box anymore.

Washington Becomes an Arena Wired by Super PACs

Meanwhile, political money flows like liquid cooling in a gaming tower. Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC, has raised more than $75 million since its launch. Fairshake, a pro-crypto group backed by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz and Ripple Labs, has already spent 28 million in contested primaries. In 2024, a PAC affiliated with Fairshake had put up more than 40 million to help beat Sherrod Brown.

However, these machines remain almost invisible: only 9% know about Leading the Future and 3% about Fairshake. Jim Renacci warns of blowback:

Until people understand where money comes from, many don't judge it. But I definitely think if they see that a candidate is supported by crypto, that's still going to be a problem.

Jim Renacci, source: Politico

The numbers that make the dashboard flash

• 45% consider crypto too risky to invest in.;
• 44% find artificial intelligence too fast;
• 75 million raised by Leading the Future;
• 28 million already spent by Fairshake;
• 41% denounce too much influence from American interest groups.

In the upper echelons, however, fear changes costume. AI and bitcoin are no longer just popular risks, but strategic tools. Some tech giants are already working on classified Pentagon operations, a sign that the deep state is moving fast. The public doubts, decision-makers plug in the cables, and the paradox becomes almost fluorescent in the political darkness.