The cryptocurrency industry sharply increased its annual spending on lobbying in Washington last year, shelling out more than ever before — $21.55 million.
This is according to an analysis of disclosures by OpenSecrets, which rounded up disclosures from more than 50 industry players.
Spending in 2022 was more than double the crypto industry’s…
The cryptocurrency industry sharply increased its annual spending on lobbying in Washington last year, shelling out more than ever before — $21.55 million.
This is according to an analysis of disclosures by OpenSecrets, which rounded up disclosures from more than 50 industry players.
2022’s spending was more than double the crypto industry’s lobbying outlay of $8.29 million for 2021, as shown in the chart below.
The upturn came during a year when the industry suffered a black eye thanks to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently awaiting trial on fraud charges, had been a megadonor for the 2022 midterm elections, but politicians have ended up returning or giving away campaign contributions tied to FTX.
Campaign contributions are not considered lobbying, although donors make them to build relationships with policymakers.
Bitcoin
BTCUSD
,
the most famous virtual currency, lost more than 60% in 2022, but it has increased in 2023.
Don’t miss: SEC accuses Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon of defrauding crypto investors
While the crypto industry’s lobbying spending is growing, the amounts paid out by individual companies and trade groups fall far short of lobbying spending by major Washington players. Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN
and its subsidiaries, for example, paid out $21.38 million in 2022, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks money in American politics.
From the MarketWatch archives (February 2022): Congressional Crypto Traders: The US Lawmakers Who Buy and Sell Digital Currencies
The table below, also based on OpenSecrets data, shows the 2022 lobbying expenditures of companies that aimed to influence Washington on crypto-related issues. Coin base
COIN
paid out the most, followed by the Blockchain Association.
| Name | Lobbying expenses in 2022 |
| Coin base | $3,390,000 |
| Blockchain Assn | $1,900,000 |
| Crypto.com | $1,180,000 |
| Binance Holdings | $1,110,000 |
| Ripple | $1,080,000 |
| Chamber of Digital Commerce | $936,406 |
| DeFi Education Fund | $930,000 |
| Dapper Labs | $880,000 |
| FTX.US | $720,000 |
| Taxbit Inc | $520,000 |
| Tether Operations | $480,000 |
| Stellar Development Foundation | $460,000 |
| Payward Inc | $440,000 |
| Digital currency group | $440,000 |
| Chainalysis Inc | $430,000 |
| Vaultlink Inc | $360,000 |
| Crypto council for innovation | $350,000 |
| Chia network | $340,000 |
| Bitcoin Assn | $340,000 |
| Coinflip | $320,000 |
| Ava Labs | $300,000 |
| Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Assn | $280,000 |
| Riot Blockchain | $280,000 |
| Anchor Laboratories | $250,000 |
| Gemini Trust Co | $240,000 |
| Paxos Trust Co | $220,000 |
| Saito Tech | $200,000 |
| Algorand Inc | $200,000 |
| Blockchains LLC | $195,000 |
| The Association for Digital Asset Markets | $190,000 |
| Galaxy Digital Holdings | $190,000 |
| Bullish USA | $180,000 |
| Stone Ridge | $180,000 |
| Celo Foundation | $176,500 |
| Bitwise Asset Management | $160,000 |
| Overstock.com | $160,000 |
| Filecoin Foundation | $150,000 |
| Used blockchain | $150,000 |
| ConsenSys software | $150,000 |
| Open sea | $140,000 |
| Uniswap Labs | $130,000 |
| Proof of trust | $120,000 |
| Marathon Digital Holdings | $120,000 |
| Paradigm operations | $100,000 |
| Proof of Stake Alliance | $100,000 |
| Hive Blockchain Technologies | $80,000 |
| Brale Inc | $80,000 |
| LMAX Group | $70,000 |
| The Exodus Movement | $70,000 |
| BlockFi International | $40,000 |
| Bit5ive LLC | $22,500 |
| Genre | $20,000 |
Source: OpenSecrets.org
