In 2022, the crypto industry shattered records by spending an unprecedented $21.55 million on lobbying in Washington, D.C., with Coinbase as its major proponent. This figure was more than twofold of what it spent a year prior ($8.29 million) – verified by OpenSecrets’ analysis of over 50 companies involved in this effort.
Coinbase Tops the List of “Companies Spending the Most Money on Lobbying”
According to the report, Coinbase was a leader in lobbying spending, with an outlay of $3.4 million in 2022. Blockchain Association, Crypto.com, Binance Holdings, and Ripple each followed closely behind, allocating approximately $1.9 million, $1.2 million, $1.1 million, and $1 million, respectively, for their respective lobbying efforts.
It is important to remember that campaign contributions, election finance, and political donations are not considered lobbying spending, even though donors use them to establish relationships with policymakers. Despite this fact, the industry reached an all-time high for lobbying spending last year after a series of catastrophic occurrences such as Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin collapse, FTX crypto exchange disintegration, and, most recently, the Genesis crypto lending company failure.
Comparatively, the crypto industry’s lobbying expenditure is indeed increasing. However, individuals and trade groups within this sector aren’t competing with tech and e-commerce giants like Amazon or Google. As an example of such a disparity in spending power: OpenSecrets‘ 2022 analysis revealed that Amazon shelled out $21.38 million for their lobbying efforts – whereas Alphabet (Google’s parent company) spent more than double at $13 million!
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, Also Spent a Lot of Money for Lobying
In 2020, Sam Bankman-Fried funneled an estimated $40 million for lobbying. While most of his donations went to support Democratic party candidates, Joe Biden’s successful presidential endeavor was also largely funded by SBF’s generosity. Elon Musk even suggested that SBF could have donated as much as $1 billion for Democrats in total — a figure potentially bolstered by undisclosed contributions from the crypto mogul himself.
Owing to the Citizens United case, it was legally permissible for donors to make anonymous contributions to politicians. Recently though, FTX management has demanded that any political figures and other benefactors of donations made by Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives return those funds by month’s end.
FTX’s announcement emphasized that the recipients of their lobbying efforts would have to return the full amount, even if it was allocated to a third party, such as a charitable organization. Thus, FTX executives expect all donation funds they provide to be returned in their entirety.
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