Popular San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has established a political action committee (PAC), according to recently revealed documents. The PAC hasn’t yet raised any money.
In the United States, a PAC is an organization that’s formed to raise funds on behalf of candidates running for public office, who represent the interests of the organization behind the PAC. These committees usually also pool funds for or against ballot initiatives or specific legislation.
PACs need to abstain from coordination any moves with political candidates, although this has happened in the past. Coinbase is notably the first cryptocurrency-related organization to form a PAC, although the exchange itself has donated over $81,000 for political causes, CNN reports.
Per the news outlet, Coinbase contributed $78,000 to the campaign of Brian Forde, a former Office of Science and Technology advisor to President Barack Obama’s administration. It further contributed $3,000 to a PAC dubbed “BIT PAC,” which reportedly donated the funds to Republicans.
Recently, Coinbase reportedly secured a $20 billion hedge fund. The cryptocurrency exchange is said to be looking to partner with other large institutional investors, to upgrade its offers by the end of this year.
Speaking to Business Insider Robert Hockett, a law professor at Cornell University, revealed the company may run into trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He was quoted as saying:
This raises conflict concerns, given Coinbase's also running a coin exchange, reminiscent of those that the Commission has found when securities firms have attempted to combine these two roles.
As CryptoGlobe covered, Coinbase has been trying to cater to institutional investors over the past few months. Earlier this month it launched Coinbase Custody, whose mission is to “make digital currency investment accessible to every eligible financial institution and hedge fund in the world.”
Other institutional grade products and services the popular cryptocurrency exchange launched include Coinbase Markets, which already provides a “centralized pool of liquidity for all Coinbase products,” and Coinbase Prime, an interface that’s set to provide institutional investors all the tools and services they need.
The bear market saw Coinbase’s popularity decline, as its traffic significantly declined since the beginning of this year. On app stores, its app went down from the top spot to 40th place, according to reports. As reported, the company is considering adding five cryptocurrencies
