The cryptocurrency industry often faces marked hostility from regulators and the public, but it spends huge sums of money to defend itself. That’s the conclusion of a report by Crypto Head, which shows that the ecosystem has doubled its lobbying efforts since last year. Decryption.
Crypto lobbying: when the ecosystem pays to convince the government
The report focuses on the US, where lobbying is legal, though regularly criticised. As the report points out, lobbying is almost a necessity for new industries to educate policy makers. This is what the crypto ecosystem has started to do, and its efforts have accelerated in the last year.
As proof, this ranking of the crypto companies that spent the most on lobbying last year. Robinhood, Ripple Labs (XRP) and Coinbase top the list:
Figure 1: Lobbying spending by crypto companies
The sums are substantial. The Robinhood investment platform, for example, has surpassed $1.3 million in 2021, and Ripple Labs is also approaching the $1 million mark. The report also notes the number of lobbyists hired by these companies. Coinbase has hired 23, compared to 12 for Ripple Labs and 3 for Robinhood.
Spending has skyrocketed
Since 2017, crypto companies’ lobbying expenses have skyrocketed. Five years ago, they were just $200,000. But by 2021, it was nearly $5 million in total:
Figure 2: Spending growth since 2017
Leaving aside the thorny issue of the need for lobbying, these figures show that the ecosystem has evolved over the last five years. Substantial resources are now in place to influence decision-makers – who remain largely uneducated when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
Over five years, $9.5 million has been spent by companies on lobbying the US government. Figures are not available for other parts of the world, such as Europe, but it is safe to assume that similar initiatives are underway with the European Union.
