Emissores de stablecoin gastam milhões para fazer lobby com legisladores
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire recently emphasized the significance of stablecoin regulation and secure access to digital assets.
- Binance e Coinbase gastaram mais de $6 milhões combinados em atividades de lobby.
- Os reguladores dos EUA enfrentaram pressão crescente para implantar uma estrutura regulatória para ativos digitais.
Os emissores de stablecoin supostamente gastaram milhões de dólares fazendo lobby com os legisladores dos EUA no ano passado. Como os legisladores dos EUA retomaram as conversas sobre a regulamentação de criptomoedas, dois importantes emissores de stablecoin, Corda (USDT) e Circle (USDC), despejaram mais de um milhão de dólares entre eles. Registros compilados pela ProPublica mostrar that Tether pays FTI Government Affairs $120,000 quarterly to advocate for stablecoin-related legislation. The company has spent around $600,000 since early 2022.
Tether’s USDT has a market share of 63% and an $83 billion market cap. Open Secrets, a government transparency group, claims Tether spent around $270,000 during the first quarter of 2023 to lobby lawmakers.
A Tether spokesperson explained that “Tether believes it is crucial to contribute to the development of a transparent and balanced regulatory framework that fosters innovation while ensuring consumer protection and market integrity.”
Interestingly, Tether’s rival, Circle, has been paying DC-based Invariant approximately $100,000 every quarter to educate Capitol Hill legislators on stablecoin and cryptocurrency concerns and to keep track of relevant proposals. The stablecoin issuer has spent at least $560,000 since 2021.
Circle has reportedly lobbied the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Senate, the Treasury, the House of Representatives, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Circle’s USDC currently ranks as the second-largest stablecoin with a market share of 22.6% and $29.5 billion in circulation.
Outros emissores de stablecoin, como a Paxos, a empresa por trás do Binance stablecoin BUSD, investiram quase $300.000 em lobby. No entanto, os fundos gastos por esses emissores de stablecoin empalidecem em comparação aos gastos por exchanges de criptomoedas como Binance e Coinbase. A Binance gastou mais de $1 milhões desde o início de 2022 em atividades de lobby, enquanto a Coinbase gastou mais de $5 milhões desde 2015.