Coinbase Global, Inc.

Coinbase contributed over $75 million to the Fairshake PAC in the 2024 election cycle, making it the single largest corporate funder of a super PAC. Fairshake deployed $170 million total and achieved a 91% success rate on backed candidates. The crypto industry collectively spent $245 million — nearly half of all corporate dollars in the 2024 election. Coinbase specifically funded the $40 million campaign to defeat Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, the industry's most vocal critic. In January 2025, Coinbase added Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita, Obama strategist David Plouffe, and former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to its advisory council. Former Coinbase CLO Brian Brooks became Acting Comptroller of the Currency and issued interpretive letters directly benefiting Coinbase's business model. Armstrong cheered the dismantling of the CFPB — the agency that had received 7,775 complaints against Coinbase — calling it "unconstitutional" despite a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling affirming its constitutionality. The SEC dropped its enforcement case against Coinbase with prejudice in February 2025, after the election Coinbase helped fund.

NYDFS imposed a $100 million settlement on Coinbase in January 2023 — $50M fine plus $50M mandatory compliance investment — for systemic AML/KYC failures. By late 2021, Coinbase had over 100,000 unreviewed transaction monitoring alerts backlogged. Customer onboarding was characterized as "box-ticking." The company failed to timely file Suspicious Activity Reports with FinCEN. An Independent Monitor was installed in early 2022. Separately, the CFTC fined Coinbase $6.5M (March 2021) for false and misleading trading data and wash trades on GDAX from 2015-2018.

A November 2020 New York Times investigation (based on 23 current and former employees) found Black employees were paid 7% less than peers in comparable roles (11% less including stock options), and women were paid 8% less than men. 75% of Black employees left, quit, or were fired in 2018-2019. Reports included jokes about Black stereotypes, being passed over for promotions, and complaints being ignored. In September 2020, CEO Brian Armstrong published a memo declaring Coinbase "apolitical" and banning discussion of social justice issues — directly after a June 2020 employee walkout demanding the company support Black Lives Matter. He offered severance to anyone who disagreed; 60+ employees (5% of workforce) took it.