California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, has planned a “pre-notice discussion” on the use of cryptocurrency for political campaign donations on Thursday, according to its May 2022 agenda.
A California state regulator may be considering reversing a 2018 prohibition on bitcoin donations to political campaigns. The commission stated that it will explore amending its regulations to require that “no contribution be made or received in cryptocurrency.”
Due to concerns that the funds “could be used to circumvent contribution limitations and prohibitions, or by foreign entities to contribute to campaigns,” the FPPC voted in September 2018 to prohibit both sending and receiving crypto contributions for political campaigns in the state of California.
Jay Wierenga, the FPPC’s communications director, told Cointelegraph that the commission “look[s] at trends and [tries] to stay ahead of them,” citing a March opinion in which the commission’s legal division stated that a campaign selling non-fungible tokens to raise funds must count “the entire amount received” as a “reportable contribution.”
“We’ve been watching this since late last year,” Wierenga added. “Crypto has clearly gained in popularity and awareness since 2019.” So the Commission wants to take a look at it and see if any modifications should be made.”
According to Wierenga, the present ban on crypto political campaign contributions has only impacted state and local candidates running for office in California.
For example, Aarika Rhodes, an elementary school teacher running for the 32nd congressional district in California, which is now held by Democrat Brad Sherman, has openly encouraged her followers to donate Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lighting:
States’ commissions and other governing bodies must decide whether or not to impose limits on crypto political donations for state and municipal races.
The ethics committee of the South Carolina House of Representatives stated in 2018 that cryptocurrency was not included in the definition of a campaign contribution, and Colorado limited the number of cryptocurrency donations to the same levels as fiat donations.
