The crypto industry spent a record $21 million on lobbying last year
Crypto companies spent a record $21.55 million in 2022 on lobbying in Washington, with major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase leading the list.
Last year’s spending was more than double the crypto industry’s lobbying spending of $8.29 million for 2021, according to an analysis of disclosures by OpenSecrets, which compiled disclosures from more than 50 industry players.
The report revealed that Coinbase spent the most on lobbying, shelling out around $3.4 million in 2022. Blockchain Association, Crypto.com, Binance Holdings and Ripple rank next in lobbying spending, each dishing out around $1.9 million , $1.2 million, $1.1 million, and $1 million, respectively.
It’s worth noting that campaign contributions, election financing, or political donations are not considered lobbying, even if donors make them build relationships with policymakers.
The record lobbying spending came during a year when the industry saw a series of high-profile failures starting with the implosion of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin and ending with the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and most recently the failure of crypto lending company Genesis.
Meanwhile, while the crypto industry’s lobbying spending is growing, the amounts spent by the individual companies and trade groups fall far short of lobbying spending by major tech and e-commerce companies.
For example, Amazon and its subsidiaries paid out $21.38 million in 2022, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks money in American politics. Similarly, Alphabet spent more than $13 million on lobbying last year.
Sam Bankman-Fried was a megadonor for politicians last year
Last year, Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, spent nearly $40 million on political action committees and campaigns, the bulk of which went to the Democratic Party and its candidates. He was one of the largest single donors behind Joe Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign.
Back in December, Elon Musk claimed that SBF could have donated as much as $1 billion to Democrats. The speculation came after the disgraced crypto boss revealed that some of his political donations were not disclosed.
The undisclosed donations are legally possible because of the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, which allows donors to give money to politicians anonymously.
Recently, however, the new FTX management has asked political figures and any other recipients of donations from Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives to return the funds by the end of the month.
The announcement noted that recipients of the donations would be required to repay the amount they have received from FTX executives, even if they have used that amount to make a payment to a third party, including a charity.
