New Crypto PACs and Super PACs Race to Give DC Industry Squeeze

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The latest acronym circulating in crypto discourse: PAC. Businesses and investors seek political action committees to represent their interests in DC

The Senate-approved $ 3.5 trillion infrastructure bill – and its implications for tax reporting – may be the biggest piece of legislation to garner attention, but it’s not the only topic of concern. Andrew Durgee, head of crypto and tokenization at Republic, said insurance and custody solutions for digital assets need guidance from regulators.

What makes the prospect of regulation so tricky for crypto companies, he said, is the fact that they have had years to grow without them. There is now a huge amount of capital at stake.

“It’s not often that you reach a point where now lawmakers are looking to try to regulate and begin to understand an industry that has become so important,” Durgee told Crypto Investor. “Even the internet had regulatory frameworks before it got this big.”

There were a few PACs before the infrastructure bill put everyone’s focus on ensuring that crypto interests were represented in DC, but their impact has been fairly small.

BitPAC (not BitPack, a digital backpack project), founded by Dave Backer, was most active in the 2018 election when it paid $ 26,250 to 13 different Republican candidates. It was incorporated in 2018 and submitted a file to end its activities in early 2020.

Almost immediately after BitPAC ceased operations, HODLpac registered with the Federal Election Commission in January of last year. He raised $ 28,916 in 2020 and used $ 7,500 to support applicants, according to OpenSecrets.org.

His large donations – over $ 200 – come from executives at Blockchain Association, Winklevoss Capital Management, Anchorage Labs, Polychain, and Coinbase.

Now the land is crowded. Two new crypto-related Super PACs were registered with the FEC in August: Cryptopac, Inc. and Crypto PAC. And in May, the American Digital Currency Blockchain PAC entered the scene.

“There are going to be big players, super PACs and lobby groups pooling extremely large sums of money together now because they know they are fighting for the industry as a whole,” said Durgee. “And while three or four months ago there were only a few companies actively lobbying on the Hill, that number is changing dramatically from day to day.”

The latest acronym circulating in crypto discourse: PAC. Businesses and investors seek political action committees to represent their interests in DC

The Senate-approved $ 3.5 trillion infrastructure bill – and its implications for tax reporting – may be the biggest piece of legislation to garner attention, but it’s not the only topic of concern. Andrew Durgee, head of crypto and tokenization at Republic, said insurance and custody solutions for digital assets need guidance from regulators. Subscribe for the full article

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