Crypto market participants and advocacy organizations including Coinbase, FTX.US, Binance.US, The Blockchain Association, and others spent over $25 billion in 2022 for their lobbying efforts with policymakers. The lobbying expenditure of web3 projects has increased by over 920% since 2017, according to a study by The Money Mongers.
Coinbase tops the crypto lobbyist list
It’s no news that lobbying, a process whereby individuals, private interest groups, or stakeholders in any particular industry make conscious efforts to influence the decisions of policymakers or government, is practiced in virtually all spheres of the global economy and the web3 space is no exception.
While lobbying is often confused for bribery by those who do not understand its workings, it remains an integral part of participatory democracy. Lobbying is practiced by captains of industries and advocacy groups in virtually all countries of the world, to make authorities formulate amenable and favorable policies for their sector.
According to a study by The Money Mongers, an independent crypto and web3 think tank co-founded by Sudhir Khatwani, cryptocurrency-related businesses in the United States alone spent $25.57 billion on their lobbying endeavors in 2022.
Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase, the largest bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins trading venue in the US by volume, spent $3.30 million on lobbying in 2022, making the 11-year-old exchange the highest spender in the region.
However, it’s worthy of note that despite Coinbase’s lobbying efforts, the exchange recently received a Wells Notice from the securities and exchange commission (SEC), for allegedly violating the country’s securities laws. How that battle ends remains to be seen.