Stand With Crypto

Coinbase created an advocacy group that will support crypto-friendly politicians, a new affiliated federal Political Action Committee (PAC) to raise money from its 440,000 members and support bipartisan candidates running for the House of Representatives and the Senate in November’s U.S. elections. Stand With Crypto is registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit aimed at mobilizing U.S. cryptocurrency owners to push for clear, sensible regulations, leveraging educational initiatives and public engagement to influence legislation and support innovation within the crypto industry. I think Coinbase and other's in the industry resorted to this move after SEC's relentless pursuit in search of violations (according to them) committed by the crypto industry, with no regularity clarity in sight coming from SEC even though the industry is trying to work with them for a cryptocurrency regulation, nothing positive came out of it, hence the PAC.
What is a Political Action Committee (PAC)? to get to know how PAC's came to existence, it's necessary to look back at a series of Supreme Court decisions that opened up the floodgates for changes in campaign finance laws in the U.S.

1. Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971: This legislation was the first major attempt by the U.S. government to regulate campaign finance. It required disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures for federal elections. It also limited the amount that individuals and groups could donate to candidates, parties, and political committees.
2. Buckley v. Valeo (1976): In this landmark Supreme Court case, the court upheld the contribution limits but struck down some provisions of FECA that limited independent expenditures by individuals and groups. This decision essentially equated money with speech, laying the groundwork for the rise of PACs.
3. 1979 Amendments to FECA: These amendments further clarified the regulation of PACs. They allowed for the creation of political action committees, which are organizations that can raise money to support or oppose candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. PACs are subject to contribution limits and disclosure requirements.
4. Citizens United v. FEC (2010): This Supreme Court case, along with subsequent decisions, further loosened restrictions on campaign finance. It held that corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on independent political expenditures, leading to the rise of super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to independently support or oppose candidates.

Citizens United was the midwife that birthed the Super PACs which can receive unlimited contributions from donors but cannot directly coordinate with political campaigns, they raise money even if elections are years away. It gave corporations undue influence on elected officials because they know if they don't do what the PACs or Super PACs say's money will stop flowing to their campaign coffers. They not only influence they even write what kind of laws and policies the government should have regarding certain matters that they see will be beneficial for their industry much to the detriment of simple folks like you and me.

PAC's and Super PAC's is just a form of bribery, but since there's a law that allows them to bribe legislator's it's legal bribery. If only legislators and other elected government officials do their job and deliver on their campaign promises there's no need for PAC's or Super PAC's to exist, why would they do their job when there are groups of people who are willing to give them money and write laws and policies for them? They can just sit around in their offices and wait for money to come in via the PAC's and Super PAC's.
According to https://www.opensecrets.org/ Industry and Business Interest are the top donors and contributors to both Democratic and Republican parties in the list of top 20 donors only 7 came from union or workers association the rest came from industry and business interest.


For the Top Donors in the 2023-2024 election cycle No. 9 is Coinbase and No. 12 is Ripple, not surprising for the two because they are the ones who's getting a lot of heat from SEC. From this data alone it's clear that running for public office is a great source of money for any politician who will get elected and according to the same website PAC's and Super PAC's tend to give to incumbents, no wonder majority of politicians in Washington are geriatric and needs to retire but since money is flowing freely they'd rather die or be incapacitated in office than retire. This is also the main reason politicians are adamant to changes, like the changes and development happening in the finance sector due to blockchain and cryptocurrency, Stand With Crypto should strive to put young and dynamic candidates that will not only push for regulatory clarity in the crypto industry but should also be open to what people really needs as they struggle to make ends meet and put an end to scam crypto projects that not only victimizes big investors but small crypto buyers looking for profit to their small investment. once and for all.



Source
https://www.theblock.co/post/293743/coinbase-stand-with-crypto-advocacy-group-launches-pac-us-elections?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=newsletter
https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/donor-demographics
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