Kamala Harris's Super PAC Is Using Coinbase Commerce to Accept Crypto Donations, Exec Says

Haas made the claim in a conversation with Citigroup's director of payments, Peter Christiansen, at Citi's 2024 Global TMT Conference in New York

Coinbase is now processing crypto donations for an official super political action committee (PAC) supporting US Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign, a senior Coinbase executive has claimed.

Coinbase is also ramping up its political lobbying efforts ahead of the 2024 election, aiming to get crypto-friendly candidates elected and advance crypto legislation.

Coinbase Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) is now handling cryptocurrency donations for an official super PAC supporting US Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, a senior Coinbase executive has claimed.

Coinbase Commerce, the crypto exchange’s platform for merchants to accept crypto payments, has been integrated into the Harris campaign’s website, Coinbase’s head of government affairs FPL Haas claimed in a conversation with Citigroup’s payments director.

A recording of the conversation was obtained and reviewed by Fortune.

Coinbase later confirmed the development to Fortune, adding that Future Forward is onboarded with Coinbase Commerce. Future Forward identifies itself as Harris’s official super PAC.

Harris’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Fortune noted.

The claim follows a report by The Block earlier this year that Coinbase was in talks with the Harris campaign. Harris’s campaign had not yet responded to a request for comment on the matter.

Under President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party has largely been less supportive of crypto than Republicans. But recent lobbying efforts by crypto firms could be set to change that.

“She is accepting crypto donations. She’s using Coinbase Commerce now to accept crypto for her own campaign,” Haas said, referring to the company’s platform of merchants it has operated since 2018.

Advocacy group Crypto4Harris told Input that they are not aware of Harris accepting crypto, and the Vice President’s official fundraising website does not currently show the integration.

In June, the super PAC Future Forward announced that it had raised $50 million to support Harris. We’ve reached out to Coinbase again to reconfirm Haas’s claim and will update this article with any response.

Coinbase is ramping up its political lobbying efforts

Coinbase made its first contribution to a political actions committee (PAC) in June, Input reported at the time.

The crypto exchange donated to Fairshake, a political action committee set up to support candidates that support crypto.

Coinbase also made “incremental” contributions to the PAC throughout the second quarter of this year, Haas said, “furthering support of just general policy efforts into Q3.”

As of June, the super PAC had won 32 of the 34 elections it was involved in.

“We are seeing those dollars have impact in those elections,” Haas said.

“She has a huge opportunity. We’re cautiously optimistic,” Haas added, referring to Harris. “She has not rolled out the details yet, but she has made overtures that she would like to drive crypto legislation.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that the company donated directly to neither Presidential campaign.