The Crypto Industry spent $21M in Lobbying last year – Coinbase leads the list
The record-breaking $21.55 million spent by crypto companies in Washington lobbying in 2022 was led by Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange.
An analysis by an reveals that last year’s spending exceeded the lobbying expenditure of $8.29million for 2021. Analyse OpenSecrets gathered disclosures from over 50 industry players.
According to the report, Coinbase spent $3.4 million on lobbying in 2022. Blockchain Association, Crypto.com and Binance Holdings rank second in terms of lobbying expenditures. They each spent approximately $1.9 million to lobby, $1.2 million and $1.1 million respectively.
It is important to note that even though donors build relationships with policymakers, campaign contributions, election financing, and political donations do not count as lobbying expenditure.
Record lobbying spending was recorded in a year that saw a series of high-profile failures in the industry. These included the implosion Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, and the most recent failure of Genesis crypto lending company.
While lobbying expenditures in the crypto industry are growing, they still fall short of the lobbying spending made by the major tech and e-commerce firms.
Amazon, for example, and its subsidiaries In 2022, $21.38 Million was spentAccording to OpenSecrets’ analysis, which tracks money in U.S. politics, the figure is approximately $13 million. Alphabet also spent more than $13million in lobbying last fiscal year.
Sam Bankman-Fried Was a Megadonor for Politicians Last Year
Sam Bankman-Fried (the disgraced founder and founder of FTX) spent nearly $40 million last year on political action committees, campaigns, and candidates, with the majority of that money going to the Democratic party. He was the single biggest donor to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Elon Musk claimed in December that SBF could have donated up to $1 billion to Democrats. After the disgraced crypto boss disclosed that some of his political donations weren’t publicly disclosed, speculation arose.
Legally, undisclosed donations can be made because of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. This case allows anonymous donors to make money to politicians.
However, the new FTX Management has asked political figures and all other recipients of donations made to Sam Bankman-Fried or other FTX executives to repay the funds by the end the month.
An announcement stated that the recipients of donations would have to repay any amount received from FTX executives even if the money was used to pay a third party such as a charity.