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Molly White

Coinbase has tried to portray its “Stand With Crypto” PAC as having broad grassroots support among over a million “crypto advocates”, and boasts on its homepage of nearly $180 million raised by these advocates.

Its first quarterly FEC filing reveals it has had only $13,690 in contributions from seven people since its creation. Two of them work for Stand With Crypto and two of them work for Coinbase.

Stand with Crypto homepage. Headline: "If you care about crypto, it's time to prove it". Subhead "52 million Americans own crypto. And yet, crypto's future in America remains uncertain. Congress is writing the rules as we speak - but they won't vote YES until they've heard from you." $179,360,865(i) donated by crypto advocates 1,286,014 crypto advocates 215,665 policymaker contacts
FEC Form 3x for Stand With Crypto Alliance, Inc. Political Action Committee, showing a filing date of 7/15/2024, and a coverage period of 4/1/2024 to 6/30/2024.
FEC Form 3x for Stand With Crypto, showing $0 in cash on hand at the beginning of the reporting period and $13,690.18 in total receipts
#crypto#CryptoLobby#USpolitics
Jul 20, 2024, 12:08 AM·Public·Web
268boosts·377favorites
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Molly White

After my reporting about the falsified donations amount, the PAC added a tooltip that acknowledges that $177.8 million (99%) of the “donations by crypto advocates” are actually the multi million dollar donations by a handful of big crypto companies and their execs.

However, the site still claims that SWC has itself raised $1.48 million. Either they've raised 99% of their funds in the last 19 days, or they’re doing more funny business with the numbers they’re claiming.

docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms

docquery.fec.gov FEC Disclosure Form 3X for STAND WITH CRYPTO ALLIANCE, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
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Molly White

Actually — given this screenshot from June 30 (the last day of the reporting period) claimed $1.47M raised by SWC, that suggests they've only raised ~$10,000 since.

hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/11270

So there's around $1.45M they've claimed to have raised that's unaccounted for.

#crypto#cryptocurrency#CryptoLobby
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Molly White

Assuming the number isn't wholly made up, my guess is that most of the money they're collecting goes to the Stand With Crypto organization, not the PAC by the same name.

However, if this is the case, it isn't made clear anywhere on the site or throughout the donation process. It also conflicts with promises on the site that donations go to support candidates directly.

The organization, a 501(c)(4), does not have to disclose its donors. See OpenSecrets' description:

Open Secrets following the money in politicsMenu Home   Outside Spending Frequently Asked Questions About 501(c)(4) Groups SECTIONS Outside Spending: Frequently Asked Questions About 501(c)(4) Groups The number of politically active nonprofits has surged following the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC, as has their spending. Most of that growth comes from 501(c)(4) or "social welfare" organizations. Read the guide below to learn more about these groups. What is a 501(c)(4)?  What is social welfare?  What are the benefits and responsibilities of having 501(c) status?  501(c) organizations can operate without incurring tax liability. Another major benefit, for many groups, is the ability to collect donations without disclosing donors. That can help a donor to a charitable group feel comfortable that other organizations won't come knocking at his or her door for similar contributions. The lack of disclosure can also help disguise the true nature of a highly political organization. For instance, OpenSecrets has found examples of so-called "grassroots" groups that appear to be primarily funded by one wealthy individual. In other cases, corporations have been able to make donations to politically active groups that take controversial stands on hot topics without disclosing to shareholders or customers that they are involved. Perhaps the biggest problem with the nondisclosure is that citizens barraged with political messages may not be able to con
What are the downsides of having 501(c) status?  The downside for 501(c)(4)s is that they must abide by certain rules and regulations, and, in theory, oversight by the Internal Revenue Service. For groups that want to be politically active, alternative corporate structures are available, such as super PACs and "527" groups -- and those groups aren't limited to spending just 49.9 percent of their resources on politics. However, they are required to disclose their donors. Essentially, a 501(c)(4) is an inefficient way to spend money politically -- unless there is a high premium on keeping the identity of donors secret.
#crypto#cryptocurrency
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Josh Rivers

@molly0xfff Are all the figures based on imaginary optimal pricing of the BTC donated?

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Molly White

@michaelgemar the organizational structure is afaict allowed. I don't know if there's a law regarding how clear you have to be where donations are going.

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Michael Gemar

@molly0xfff It would seem to me to at least border on fraud.

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Charles J Gervasi ⚡🛡️🥥

@molly0xfff "it just doesn't seem likely to me that a substantial number of people are single-issue crypto voters and would be swayed to vote for a candidate they might not otherwise support because of it."
I support #crypto and get #StandwithCrypto action alerts. I will only vote for candidates who speak out against #MAGA, but it would be good to hear @potus and normie candidates support freedom to use cryptocurrency.

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adamrice

@molly0xfff It’s all on the blockchain so it’s independently verifiable, right?

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Nini

@molly0xfff Fraudsters potentially doing fraud?

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find you on :butterfedy1: fediverse

@molly0xfff where are you at with cloudflare? u kno coinbase.com is cf right, cf have basically de-monetized and purged bitcoiners from their own banks and financial institutions that also operate over crypto, let alone from their bitcoin exchanges from at least 2021, 99% of which are all cf now.

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libramoon

@molly0xfff

crypto and AI -- helping to destroy our planet and our economic futures so some a-holes can feel superior

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Aiono

@molly0xfff
This kind of playing with numbers sounds familiar to me from somewhere 🤔

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