Sam Bankman-Fried’s newfound infamy has given cryptocurrency regulators an opportunity to unravel the former billionaire’s lobbying efforts. Lawmakers will be pressed to reassess their approaches to digital assets, Politico raporları.
Over the past few years, Bankman-Fried has used his fortune to become one of the biggest crypto influencers in Washington. The entrepreneur recently announced he would donate $1 billion to influence the next US presidential election and spend “north of $100 million” in the midterm elections. He backtracked — only $40 million went to political action committees (PACs) and campaigns, mostly leaning Democratic.
Still, Bankman-Fried was the ikinci en büyük Democratic donor to outside spending groups in 2022.
Dollar spend on crypto lobbying has quadrupled to $9 million since 2018, the Financial Times (FT) noted this summer. The number of crypto lobbyists doubled in that same time period, from 115 to 320. In 2021, all four of FTX.US’s lobbyists were previous government workers — this year, 10 out of 13 used to be.
Additionally, Bankman-Fried gave $3.5 million to the GMI PAC, which gave $5.8 million to a pro-crypto super PAC, Web3 Forward. He further donated $155,000 to right-wing PACs which all supported a crypto-friendly candidate, FT raporları. These candidates include two chief politicians — on both sides of the aisle — with seats on the Senate agriculture committee that oversees crypto.
Yet, Bankman-Fried has also made poor lobbying decisions. Notably, he injected $13 million into hybrid PAC Protect our Future. It deployed $11.3 million in outside funding to political candidate Carrick Flynn — who went on to dramatically lose in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s 6th congressional district.