Binance expanded investments in lobbying just before guilty plea
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has sharply increased its investment in lobbying over the past two years.
Binance and Binance.US spent more than $1 million lobbying politicians in 2023-2023, according to new data provided by OpenSecrets, a US non-profit that tracks political campaign donations. In total, Binance Holdings invested $850,000 in 2023, and Binance.US spent $340,000, both up significantly from the previous year.
Binance.US led the way in spending last year by investing more than $1 million lobbying for Binance.US and just $50,000 for Binance worldwide, the report found.
These lobbying efforts in 2022 focused on two specific bills: the Digital Consumer Protection Act and the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act, the report says.
However, Binance is not the only crypto company investing in fresh lobbying efforts: Coinbase has spent roughly twice as much as Binance, with more than $2.1 million spent in 2023, while Kraken spent about $888,000 on lobbying this year.
In total, 56 companies have spent an estimated $20 million on crypto lobbying in the U.S., with Coinbase leading among crypto companies, and just 10 companies contributing more than half of crypto’s total resources towards influence of government officials.
