US Senate candidate Austin Petersen revealed his campaign received, and promptly returned, a giant amount of bitcoin this week, as the donation ran afoul of financing laws. Leading candidate for the Libertarian Party's national chair, Joshua Smith, has made cryptocurrency a key part of his platform heading into the convention. Candidate for congress, coder Brian Forde, former MIT Media Lab digital currency director, and one-time technology advisor to President Obama, came out strongly in favor of cryptocurrency. The community is divided about political influence generally, but if there must be politicians it's probably a positive sign some are warming to crypto like never before.

US Senate Candidate Austin Petersen Returns $130,000 Bitcoin Donation

"To whoever tried to give us $130,276 in #Bitcoin on Saturday," posted US Senate hopeful Austin Petersen in what had to be a tortuous Facebook message, "we had to refuse your donation. Please donate $5,400 to http://austinpetersen.com/bitcoin in order to comply with FEC regulations. Also, start a PAC or something mate!"

Mr. Petersen is a well known figure in liberty circles. His background includes producing Fox political shows, founding influential website The Libertarian Republic, along with coming third in the race for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination in 2016. He's currently mounting an outsider campaign for Missouri's Republican US Senate nomination. Should he win the nomination this August, he'll face incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat, in November.      

Mr. Petersen's embrace of bitcoin is well documented, and he's openly run on a platform embracing money's future. It's actually not the first time his campaign has had to return a crypto donation. Twice before he's sent back hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. He holds the record as receiving the most legally donated bitcoin, roughly $4,500. If recent polling numbers are to be believed, Mr. Petersen is some 30% percent off the pace for the nomination.