Politicians Lack of Knowledge about Cryptocurrency Drives $9 Million Lobbying Spend in 2021

Money spent on lobbying by cryptocurrency and blockchain companies reinforced concerns about future legislation. Recently published reports show that $9.5 million has been spent on lobbying to influence politicians and public officials over the past year, an increase of 116%.

 

Millions of Dollars Were Spent on Crypto Lobbying and Interest Representation in 2021

While the digital currency and blockchain industry has matured a great deal, a number of crypto advocates are concerned about regulation and politicians misunderstanding an innovative technology.

This month researchers from cryptohead.io published a study that highlights crypto lobbying in 2021. In U.S. politics, the act of persuading bureaucrats into interest representation is lawful, and lobbyists are found in nearly every American industry.

Cryptohead.io study written by James Page shows the California-based financial services company Robinhood Markets, Inc., was the largest spender in 2021 when it comes to crypto lobbying.

Out of the $9.56 million aggregate spent, Robinhood contributed $1.35 million or roughly 14.12% of the crypto lobbying expenditure last year. Ripple Labs the blockchain organization behind the crypto token xrp (XRP) was the second-largest crypto lobbying spender.

Ripple Labs spent $900,000 toward these efforts in 2021 and was followed by Coinbase which spent $785,000. While Coinbase leveraged 23 lobbyists last year, Robinhood deployed 16, and Ripple Labs utilized 12 lobbyists in 2021.

The numbers spent in 2021 exceeded 2020 by 116%, according to cryptohead.io’s study. Moreover, the researchers also measured the expenditures paid for lobbying since 2017, and Ripple Labs has spent the most funds.

 

Since 2017, cryptohead.io’s data claims that Ripple Labs spent $1.95 million on crypto lobbying while Robinhood utilized $1.625 million. Coinbase spent around $1.465 million but the Blockchain Association was the third-largest crypto lobbying spender since 2017 with $1.610 million spent.

Since 2017, cryptohead.io’s data says Block.one has spent around $940K on crypto lobbying. Cryptohead.io utilized data from the organization Open Secrets which gives estimates on how much firms spend on interest representation.

The Open Secrets list also details how many lobbyists a company employs. Cryptohead.io’s in-depth research about crypto lobbying written by James Page can be read in its entirety here.