In July 2024, I reported that Coinbase appeared to be violating campaign finance law by making contributions while holding federal contracts. I filed an FEC complaint alongside Public Citizen. The FEC hasn’t acted. Since, Coinbase has given $60M more and landed another federal contract.
Coinbase responded to the initial complaint by arguing that, despite having received a federal contract, they were not a federal contractor — then insinuated I had secret funders and made lightly veiled legal threats against me.
“It’s bad enough when the laws are weak or there are loopholes in the law, but it’s almost worse when you have laws on the books that aren’t being enforced because the regulator is inadequate, and that’s the situation where we’re finding ourselves now,” said Eric Petry, counsel in the Brennan Center for Justice’s elections and government program.
I track Coinbase’s (and its top executives’) campaign spending. They’ve spent $100 million+ since 2024 across super PACs, Trump campaign committees, and other individual candidates.
