Coinbase, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider, has established its private Political Action Committee (PAC), based on reports issued recently.
In the United States, PACs are groups which gather campaign contributions from constituents with similar policies and political goals and then give them to campaigns, either in favor of or opposed to candidates, legislature or electoral work. PACs have to be filed under the Federal Elections Commission.
In the aftermath of the 2010 United Citizens Supreme Court case against the CHF, PACs emerged as the topic of several controversies, as some people view them as a way for corporate or union donations to support political campaigns on a massive scale. In Citizens United, regulations banning political expenditures by unions or corporations on political campaigns were revoked, rendering it lawful for such bodies to expend funds from their treasuries to fund political campaigns.
Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange launched a Political Action Committee (PAC)
These groups are not yet allowed to support the campaigns of federal candidates directly and should, therefore, count on the PACs. The PACs also have to abstain from liaising with the candidates on any action or matter. In some instances, though, there has been some coordination. As of June 30th, Coinbase has not collected any revenue from its PAC.
Coinbase has reportedly insured a $20 billion hedge fund for its custody service. Well-acquainted people told Business Insider that Coinbase is also seeking a partnership with several other leading hedge funds, notably to provide funding by the end of the year. Cornell University law professor Robert Hockett commented that the decision to launch prime brokerage operations is expected to draw the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) interest.
That raises issues of conflict, as Coinbase also manages a currency exchange, reminiscent of those the Commission has found when securities firms have tried to combine these two functions.
At the beginning of this month, Coinbase introduced custody services for institutional investors in cryptocurrencies.
