Coinbase: news about the crypto exchange

Among the latest news on the crypto exchange Coinbase, it emerges that the platform is one of the top crypto funders for lobbying in Washington.

Summary

• Coinbase heads the list of largest crypto funders of lobbying activities
• Coinbase and the theft of credentials from an employee without consequences
• Coinbase (COIN) registers +16% in the last month, but it’s not enough
  • Coinbase not just crypto
• The platform’s responses to the SEC’s claims about the staking service

Coinbase heads the list of largest crypto funders of lobbying activities

In 2022, crypto companies registered record spending of $21.55 million on lobbying in Washington. According to what emerges from OpenSecrets data, it appears that Coinbase is the crypto exchange that leads the list of top funders.

Indeed, Coinbase would have disbursed as much as $3.4 million in 2022. Next in the ranking would be Blockchain Association with $1.9 million, Crypto.com with $1.2 million, Binance Holdings with $1.1 million, and Ripple with $1 million.

Essentially, “lobbying” is the tool of political representation by which groups, organizations, individuals (or crypto companies), linked together by common interests, legitimately affect institutions with the aim of influencing decisions for their own benefit.

These activities, also funded by crypto companies in 2022, do not take into account campaign contributions, election financing or political donations.

In this regard, the Supreme Court legitimized with the Citizens United case in 2021 the choice not to disclose details of donations to politicians. Since then, donors have been allowed to give money to politicians anonymously. This means that the amount is not included in this count, as it is difficult to calculate, but it does not exclude that the amounts paid for lobbying are many more.

Last year Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) proved to be the largest funder, allocating nearly $40 million to fund political action committees and Democratic Party campaigns.

Granted, after the FTX bankruptcy, the ruling on SBF’s lobbying is that those who received donations from FTX executives will have to return everything, even if already used to pay third parties, including charities.

Coinbase and the theft of credentials from an employee without consequences

Recently, Coinbase suffered a cybersecurity attack that targeted one of its employees. The platform’s cybersecurity controls then prevented the attacker from gaining direct access to the system, so there were no consequences of loss of funds or manipulation of customer data.

In essence, several employees allegedly received a message indicating an urgent need to log into the company account to read an important communication. One employee fell into the trap by entering a username and password.

This was revealed by Coinbase itself, which, claiming to believe in transparency, wanted to share the techniques and procedures used by the cyber attacker.

And indeed, the cybercriminals allegedly gained access to internal systems and phoned the employee who had provided his credentials, claiming to be an IT manager.

The security team, after noticing strange activity on his account, alerted the employee-victim via internal messaging, so that he, realizing the deception, then broke off communication with the attacker.

Coinbase suggested that everyone adopt multi-level protection, such as two-factor authentication (2FA), preferably via app or hardware key.

Coinbase (COIN) registers +16% in the last month, but it’s not enough

Coinbase’s stock, COIN, just recorded a +16% price pump over the past 30 days. Specifically, COIN’s price was nearly $60 last month, while today it is worth $65.20.

Good, but not great. Coinbase shares had touched a price of $81.46 on 2 February, so in the last 20 days, there seems to have been another small downtrend.

Coinbase not just crypto

And indeed, COIN was launched last April 2021 and was priced as high as $342, touching the same price only in November 2021, in the midst of the crypto bull run.

COIN’s price has since fallen. At the beginning of 2022, COIN was worth $252, while at the beginning of 2023, it is worth a lot less, $35 to be precise.

Yet despite this bargain price, there are those who still have faith in the crypto platform, such as Cathie Wood, who with her popular investment fund Ark Invest (ARKK) continues to show interest in Coinbase.

Indeed, it recently emerged that the ARKK fund has reportedly purchased about $20 million worth of COIN since the beginning of the year.

The platform’s responses to the SEC’s claims about the staking service

Another news story in recent weeks about Coinbase, is its stance on the SEC’s claims about the cryptocurrency staking service.

Recently, the US government agency revealed that the crypto staking service would be equivalent to an investment contract, and therefore a security, and for that it must be approved by the same agency.

Coinbase, on the other hand, argues that crypto staking is not a security at all and allowed Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, to describe the reasons why on Twitter.

Among other points, Grewal specified that crypto staking is not a security under both the US Securities Act and the Howey Test.

As for the rewards of the crypto staking service, Grewal also reiterated that they come from the blockchain that puts the tokens to work following the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, which, for sure, is not a financial contract.

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