Molly WhiteIt’s finally time to release my newest project: https://www.followthecrypto.org/
This website provides a real-time lens into the cryptocurrency industry’s efforts to influence 2024 elections in the United States.
I have been working on this for the past two months, after growing increasingly concerned about the influence this industry is trying to exert. Did you know crypto companies have spent more this cycle than the oil or pharmaceutical industries, despite being a small fraction of the size?
Noah Cook@molly0xfff For a bit of perspective, that "all health" spending is where it is in part because healthcare is 1/6 of the economy, but also because CMS's budget is a bit over $1 Trillion-with-a-T. That includes Medicare, the federal portions of Medicaid/CHIP, and other programs.
So $200 million in lobbying is perhaps understandable. What the hell does the crypto industry expect to get? I suspect that the answer is not entirely financial.
Sophie Schmieg@UncivilServant @molly0xfff depends, does financial fraud count as being financial? In the end, that's how I would gauge most, if not all, cryptocurrency lobbying: attempts at making fraud and scam legal.
@sophieschmieg @molly0xfff Yes and no.
Obviously they want to do that, but most industries do not need to spend this much money to do so. In Medicine, you see a lot of money being spent in part because there's at least a trillion in federal spending involved, even without any new laws or regs that would affect an overall market a sixth of US GDP.
There's nothing remotely comparable at stake financially for crypto, so I assume they have broader sociopolitical goals and are buying access.