Crypto industry lobbying expenses up 120% in 2022 in the US

The crypto industry has been raising its lobbying efforts amid the crypto winter that began last year. In 2022, market participants spent $25.57 million on lobbying in the United States. 

This number appears in a study published by the Money Mongers on Feb. 23. The count is based on data from OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit, tracking the lobbying expenses (which should be publicly accessible by law) in the U.S.

According to this data, the general rise of the industry’s lobbying budgets made up 922% in five years between 2017 and 2022. In 2017, when the price of Bitcoin rocketed for the first time, the young industry spent only $2.5 million on lobbying efforts, while last year, this number stood at $25.57 million. In the previous year alone, the stakeholders raised their expenses by 121.41% from $11.54 million in 2021.

The leader of the spender’s list is the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase, which paid $3.3 million to 32 lobbyists in 2022. The top three is completed by the Blockchain Association, with 18 lobbyists ($1.9 million), and Robinhood with 20 lobbyists ($1.84 million).

The American subsidiary of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance.US, occupied only the ninth spot on the list with $960,000 spent in 2022. However, Coinbase’s level of early expenditure remained steady — dishing out around $1–1.5 million each year — whereas Binance.US started spending only in 2021, raising its efforts from $160,000 to almost $1 million in twelve months.

Related: Americans ‘frustrated’ by financial system inequality, 20% own crypto

The overall expenditure of crypto companies on lobbying in America is slightly over $50 million in six years, which is more than modest if we compare this number with other industries. For example, pharmaceutical companies spent over $350 million in 2022 on federal lobbying efforts.