Crypto industry’s annual spending on Washington lobbying more than doubles

The cryptocurrency industry sharply increased its annual spending on Washington lobbying last year, shelling out more than it ever has before — $21.55 million.

That’s 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 lobbing outlay of $8.29 million for 2021, as shown in the chart below.

The ramp up came during a year when the industry suffered a black eye thanks to the November collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, 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 linked to FTX.

Campaign contributions aren’t counted as lobbying spending, even as donors make them to build relationships with policymakers.

Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+0.24%,
the best-known virtual currency, lost more than 60% in 2022, but it has rallied in 2023.

Don’t miss: SEC charges Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon with defrauding crypto investors

While the crypto industry’s lobbying spending is growing, the amounts shelled out by its individual companies and trade groups fall well short of lobbying spending by bigger Washington players. Amazon.com Inc. 
AMZN,
-0.97%
and its subsidiaries, for example, paid out $21.38 million in 2022, according to an analysis by OpenSecrets, which is a research group tracking money in U.S. politics.

From MarketWatch’s archives (February 2022): Congress’s crypto traders: The U.S. lawmakers who buy and sell digital currencies

The table below, also based on OpenSecrets data, shows the 2022 lobbying spending by enterprises that aimed to influence Washington on crypto-related issues. Coinbase
COIN,
-0.59%
paid out the most, followed by the Blockchain Association.

Name

2022 lobbying spending

Coinbase

$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 Labs

$250,000

Gemini Trust Co

$240,000

Paxos Trust Co

$220,000

Saito Tech

$200,000

Algorand Inc

$200,000

Blockchains LLC

$195,000

Association for Digital Asset Markets

$190,000

Galaxy Digital Holdings

$190,000

Bullish US

$180,000

Stone Ridge

$180,000

Celo Foundation

$176,500

Bitwise Asset Management

$160,000

Overstock.com

$160,000

Filecoin Foundation

$150,000

Applied Blockchain

$150,000

ConsenSys Software

$150,000

OpenSea

$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

Exodus Movement

$70,000

BlockFi International

$40,000

Bit5ive LLC

$22,500

Genrae

$20,000

Source: OpenSecrets.org

You May Also Like

GameStop fires CEO, elects Ryan Cohen as executive chairman; stock plunges

GameStop Corp. fired Chief Executive Matthew Furlong on Wednesday and said that…

Rocket Lab’s stock dives after latest launch ends in failure

Shares of Rocket Lab USA Inc. dove Tuesday toward their ninth loss…

IMF raises alarm over ‘contagion’ from private capital in life insurance

The IMF has urged regulators to bear down on the liquidity risks…

US urges compromise on Britain and EU over N Ireland trade deal

The US urged the UK and the EU on Friday to reach…