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The Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) digital asset exchange keeps throwing millions at U.S. politicians, but it wasn’t enough to guarantee crypto bills a smooth ride through Congress.
- Fairshake warns pols of mid-term spending plans
- GOP rebels complicate ‘crypto week’
- Flush with cash, Coinbase buys Liquifi
- Coinbase relocating EU ops to Luxembourg, not done with Dublin
- Coinbase v Oregon finds another gear
The Fairshake political action committee (PAC) has reportedly amassed a war chest of over $140 million to be deployed ahead of and during the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. Politico reported that Fairshake raised $52 million in the first half of 2025, nearly half of which ($25 million) came from Coinbase.
Fairshake and two affiliated PACs, Protect Progress (pro-Democratic candidates) and Defend American Jobs (pro-GOP), spent $135 million in the 2024 election cycle. The impact of this spending was undeniable, helping to elect pro-crypto candidates (like Sen. Bernie Moreno in Ohio, whose campaign received $40 million in crypto cash) while dethroning some major crypto critics (including Moreno’s rival Sherrod Brown, who chaired the Senate Banking Committee).
Coinbase is by no means Fairshake’s sole whale funder, as XRP-issuer Ripple Labs and the tech-focused venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) (NASDAQ: ZADIHX) have anted up similarly large sums in the past. The H1 haul also benefited from contributions by decentralized finance (DeFi) developers Uniswap Labs and Robert Leshner, founder of DeFi lending protocol Compound and current CEO of tokenization firm Superstate.
Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, responded to Politico’s report by calling Fairshake’s haul “a very different kind of war chest—zero concerns about political affiliation, and entirely focused on candidates of whatever party who support innovation.”
But also laser-focused on those whose support might not be forthcoming. The timing of the Politico report can’t be ignored, coming ahead of what has been pitched as ‘Crypto week’ in the House of Representatives. There were three crypto bills originally scheduled for House floor votes this week, dealing with market structure (the CLARITY Act), stablecoins (the Senate-approved GENIUS Act), and a ban on central bank digital currencies (Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act).
Politico reported that Fairshake and similar groups like the Cedar Innovation Foundation (CIF) are closely watching how members of the House of Representatives vote this week. In case anyone missed this message, CIF tweeted/warned Monday that CLARITY represents “the most important vote members will take this Congress.”
The GOP empire strikes back
And yet, Tuesday saw a major revolt by 13 GOP House reps—mostly Freedom Caucus members—who joined with Democrats to defeat what should have been a procedural formality to tee up floor votes on CLARITY, GENIUS, and CBDCs.
Politico reported that the GOP hardliners went rogue in part because they resented having been told to accept GENIUS as is, mothball the House’s own stablecoin bill (STABLE Act), and submit no amendments in order to get the bill to Trump’s desk for signature ASAP.
The House made some last-minute tweaks to CLARITY to address some of their GENIUS concerns. Trouble is, the GOP holdouts reportedly have no faith that, once GENIUS is approved, the Senate won’t simply dump CLARITY in favor of a Senate-sponsored market structure bill (which has yet to arrive).
Other GOP holdouts want the House to combine all three crypto bills into one because they don’t trust the Senate to pass a standalone anti-CBDC bill. The CBDC issue is a non-starter with Senate Dems, which would lead to their voting against an omnibus package, depriving the Senate of the 60-vote majority it requires for passage.
Post-vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) huddled with his caucus in the hopes of holding a second vote later Tuesday. But this plan was scrapped when House leaders refused demands to combine the three bills. Johnson is now planning a procedural vote on Wednesday, although what this means for the House’s ‘crypto week’ schedule remains to be seen.
Earlier Tuesday, President Trump took to his Truth Social platform to urge House Republicans to approve GENIUS, saying, “Get the first Vote done this afternoon (ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD VOTE YES!).” It seemed a sure bet that he’d be calling up the GOP holdouts for some very loud and expletive-filled conversations.
Sure enough, late Tuesday, Trump posted that he was “in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule.” Trump claimed Johnson attended the meeting by phone and “looks forward to taking the Vote as early as possible.”
Trump’s palpable interest in getting GENIUS approved, while not showing the same level of enthusiasm/urgency for market structure or anti-CBDC legislation, helps explain why so many Dems tried to amend the bills to prevent Trump and his family from profiting off his numerous crypto ventures. These include the USD1 stablecoin issued by the Trump-linked DeFi project World Liberty Financial (WLF), which continues to generate controversy.
Later still on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) issued the House schedule for Wednesday, which shows all three crypto bills as ‘legislation that may be considered,’ with the first vote scheduled for 12:20 pm EST.
Coinbase acquires Liquifi
Regardless whether its big bet pays off, Coinbase can easily afford its lobbying largesse. The recent spike in the Bitcoin/BTC token price led to a surge in Coinbase’s share price, which briefly topped the $400 mark on July 14, a new all-time high since the company’s 2021 Nasdaq debut.
The surge pushed the company’s market cap over the $100 billion mark for the first time. It has since retreated below that mark as the shares slid to $388 on Tuesday (after dropping as low as $374 in the immediate aftermath of the House vote drama).With money to burn, Coinbase has been busy on the acquisition front. Following May’s blockbuster $2.9 billion acquisition of the derivatives-focused Deribit exchange, this month saw Coinbase acquire token-management platform Liquifi. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The San Francisco-based Liquifi helps early-stage companies automate token vesting schedules, distribution, and compliance. Launched in 2021, Liquifi raised $5 million in a 2022 seed round led by the Dragonfly VC firm, with notable individuals like Katie Haun (Haun Ventures) and a16z partner Balaji Srinivasan adding their support.
Liquifi claims to handle over $8.5 billion worth of tokens for over 100 customers, including Uniswap, Ethena, OP Labs, 0x, and Zora. Liquifi further claims to have handled $1.7 billion in global payouts last year.
Coinbase’s VP of institutional product Greg Tusar claimed that “launching a token today is too hard” (the folks at Pump.fun might dispute this) due to “a fragmented, high-stakes maze of legal, tax, and compliance hurdles on top of stitching together cap table spreadsheets, custom vesting scripts, and regulatory guesswork.”
Tusar said the long-term plan was to integrate Liquifi’s capabilities into the Coinbase Prime institutional investment platform, making token launches “simple, compliant and scalable.”
This marks Coinbase’s fourth acquisition this year, already outpacing 2024’s total of three M&A deals. In addition to Deribit, Coinbase bulked up by adding onchain-advertising/attribution firm Spindl and the Iron Fish privacy-focused blockchain.
Both of the latter firms are intended to boost the appeal of Base, the Ethereum ‘layer 2’ network, which Coinbase launched in 2023. The Iron Fish team’s role is described as helping to develop “privacy-preserving primitives across Base,” while allowing the Iron Fish network and its native token to remain “independent and unaffiliated” with either Coinbase or Base.
Base’s contributions to Coinbase’s revenue totaled $92 million last year, thanks partly to its popularity as a network on which to launch memecoins. Base recently hired ‘country leads’ in seven regions—Argentina, Brazil, Central America, Singapore, South Korea, U.K. + Europe, and West Africa—in which the network hopes to make further inroads.
You’re up, Europe
Speaking of geography, last month, Coinbase announced that it had chosen Luxembourg as the home of its new “European crypto hub.” The news came as Coinbase obtained its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
MiCA is the pan-European Union digital asset regulatory scheme that aims to harmonize the continent’s approach to handling all things crypto. Operators are required to be licensed in one EU member state, but obtaining said license empowers operators to offer services across the European Economic Area (EEA).
Coinbase previously established its EU hub in Ireland, and the company’s regional managing director of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Daniel Seifert, told CNBC that its Dublin office had “imminent” plans to add around 50 new jobs. However, Seifert said Luxembourg “presented a highly compelling option” after the country took an early lead in the EU crypto regulatory sweepstakes.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC his company was “all in on Europe … MiCA has set the standard, and Luxembourg is leading the way with its pro-business climate and thoughtful approach to regulation.” In a separate discussion at a crypto conference last month, Armstrong said Coinbase’s Luxembourg office planned to hire 22 people by the end of this year, “and then grow from there.”
While other international exchanges beat them to the punch, Coinbase was the first U.S. exchange to secure a MiCA diploma. Rival Kraken has since acquired its own MiCA approval from the Central Bank of Ireland, while Gemini is reportedly still awaiting its approval from Malta’s Financial Services Authority (possibly because Malta’s willingness to fast-track some MiCA approvals isn’t sitting well with the European Securities and Markets Authority).
Coinbase shows its fangs to the Beaver State
Back home in the states, Coinbase has upped the ante in its fight with Oregon’s Attorney General by demanding to know why the state abruptly changed its cryptocurrency policies.
A little backstory: In April, Coinbase was sued by Oregon AG Dan Rayfield for selling unregistered securities to state residents. Rayfield argued that the suit was warranted because the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had dropped similar charges in February, leaving it up to state AGs to “fill the enforcement vacuum.” Coinbase is seeking to shift the suit to federal court, where it expects to receive more favorable treatment given the federal regulatory stand-down.
While that request is pending, Coinbase filed suit last week in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for the County of Marion. The suit, which names Governor Tina Kotek as a defendant, seeks access to public records that might explain why the state allegedly flip-flopped on previous policy statements that digital assets are “not regulated” as securities under state law.
Coinbase acknowledges that the AG’s claims against the exchange aren’t at issue in the public records suit, but says the state must have a reason for ‘stonewalling’ Coinbase’s records request. State agencies and Kotek’s office reportedly gave Coinbase’s request the bum’s rush, citing the cost in both dollars and person-hours, as well as their belief that the request is “not in the public interest.”
Coinbase further alleges that the two private law firms the AG engaged to lead the suit against Coinbase “donated thousands of dollars” to Rayfield’s last election campaign. Moreover, these two firms “stand to receive up to 25% of any recovery obtained from Coinbase” via the securities suit.
The Oregon Department of Justice issued a statement to the media calling Coinbase’s suit “a distraction from addressing the allegations of the case head-on, and yet another attempt to have Oregonians foot the bill for Coinbase’s own illegal profiteering. This is a malicious and common tactic—used by the likes of opioid manufacturers and big tobacco—to burden states and deter them from enforcing laws.”
Coinbase’s Grewal tweeted that Kotek and Rayfield had “flip flopped on digital assets behind closed doors, without hearings or agency rulemaking and public comment. And now they refuse the public records that show this.”
Coinbase previously filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests at the federal level seeking evidence to support the ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’ conspiracy theory. These efforts have produced plenty of records, but haven’t really added legitimacy to the theory. Will its Oregon efforts prove more fruitful? Watch this space.
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