BlockFi hired lobby team, Arnold and Porter, to streamline negotiations with policymakers and will oversee regulatory and tax policy for the financial services providers in the crypto space as we can see more today in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The renowned crypto lending platform BlockFi hired a lobby team from Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP to work on tax policy and regulatory policies for the financail service providers in digital assets. BlockFi created a five-person policy team with Arnold and Porter and the team features Mark Epley and Kevin O’Neill, the legislative and public policy practice group Chair at the law and the lobbying firm.

By acquiring the services of the lobby team, BlockFi became the latest company to hire lobbyists. According to Epley, Arnold and Porter will help serve as the BlockFi alter ego and will help the company discuss industry interests with the lawmakers. He pointed out that the policymakers are not interested in hearing from the individual players on the market but the lobbyists can help in these talks. Epley disclosed that Arnold and Partner have other clients as well that are interested in crypto but they are not lobbying for any other company. A BlockFi spokesperson said:

“BlockFi believes that key to the success of the industry is appropriate regulation.”

The spokesperson added that the company is eager to work with the policymakers to help define the regulatory and the tax environment for the digital assets. The news came after BlockFi agreed to pay $100 million to the US SEC and 32 states after failing to register its lending product. The fine set the record for the highest penalty a crypto company ever paid and the SEC took $50 million of the $100 million. Apart from BlockFi, crypto companies are involved in lobbying and these include Coinbase, Blockchain Association, Ripple Labs, Coincenter, Stellar Development, and Coinflip.

In 2021, the crypto companies spent $9 million in lobbying activities and Coinbase was among the biggest donors spending $1.5 million. Ripple Labs came next with $1.1 million and Blockchain Associated donated $900,000.

As recently reported, Crypto lender BlockFi valuation drops and will close a new funding round at a lower valuation than the preivous raises. The round will value the company at $1 billion as per the reports which cite sources with knowledge of the matter. The funding known as a down round occurs when the company seeks to raise more capital and discovers that the valuation is lower than the preivous financing.