The crypto lobby in Washington is gaining momentum

The pro-crypto lobby has grown exponentially since 2020, and now more than $30 million has been poured into campaigns that aim to undo much of the harm contained in parts of the Biden infrastructure bill.

Up until the Biden infrastructure bill, and the extremely problematic wording within it of exactly who needs to meet tax reporting requirements, crypto as a lobby was hardly visible. However, since this time more than $30 million has been spent on putting the pro crypto line out there, and in trying to turn around a generally negative image of the sector.

According to an article on CNBC, U.S. republican Ritchie Torres, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, recently wrote an op-ed entitled “A liberal case for cryptocurrency.” Within it he wrote:

“With a multi-billion dollar market capitalization, crypto is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere. New York City should and must embrace crypto if it is to remain the financial capital of the world,”

Torres is one of a new breed of crypto supporters in Congress, and with him, more than 200 staff from the “White House, Congress, Federal Reserve and political campaigns”, have been hired according to the article.

The money and influence that has now been donated to the crypto lobby in Washington is being aimed at getting pro-crypto lawmakers elected to Congress.

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital, Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures, and brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, are among those who have contributed more than $20 million so far.

For all that, the crypto lobby was still unsuccessful in changing the wording in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that requires “crypto brokers” to report all transactions to the IRS in spite of the fact that some of those termed as crypto brokers would find this humanly impossible.

CNBC reported in its article that Senator Ron Wyden believed that this issue was surmountable. He stated:

“After studying the issue, I came to the judgement that a simple clarification of the language would give the tech community the certainty they needed, while still regulating brokers to ensure nobody can use crypto to avoid paying the taxes they owe,” 

One thing is sure. It can take many years for Congress to work on particularly complex rules that govern assets in markets. Therefore it should give the pro-crypto lobby the time it needs to convince Congress of the best way to regulate the crypto sector.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.