Coinbase rejects Senator Murphy's claims of Trump favoritism as 'ridiculous'

Coinbase publicly challenged U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on social media platform X after the lawmaker alleged that the crypto exchange benefited from political favoritism under President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Sen. Murphy said in an X post that Coinbase's political and corporate donations influenced the Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to drop its lawsuit against Coinbase earlier this year.

The senator also alleged that Coinbase's $46 million donation into elections, contributions to Trump's inauguration and most recent donation to build a new ballroom in the White House were all connected to "Trump's corruption factory."

Senate Democrats are currently scrutinizing Trump's $300 million ballroom project and have called for full disclosure of how it's being financed, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

In a reply post, Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad rejected the claims, calling them "ridiculous." 

Shirzad argued that Fairshake — the crypto industry's main political action committee — is nonpartisan and has supported multiple Democrats, including three of Murphy's new Senate colleagues. The Coinbase executive noted that corporate inaugural donations have been standard practice across administrations, from Obama to Biden to Trump. 

Shirzad defended the ballroom donations by saying that Coinbase contributed to building the ballroom through the Trust for the National Mall, alongside corporations from various industries.

On the SEC lawsuit, Shirzad said the case under the previous SEC chair reflected "a grotesque pattern of bullying and abuse of power," and praised the current SEC's decision to drop it as "the right decision on the merits."

"It may be that you just don't like our industry," Shirzad said. "That's unfortunate given that we're working hard to help ensure that the US financial system is on the front-edge of innovation." 

The Coinbase executive highlighted that there have been nearly 100 new stablecoin initiatives launched since the passage of the GENIUS Act, which the company publicly endorsed.

"This type of innovation is critical to the dynamism of our financial system and economy," said Shirzad.

Sen. Murphy recently had a similar dispute with another major crypto exchange, Binance.US.

Earlier this week, the democratic senator alleged that Binance.US decided to list the USD1 stablecoin as a political favor after Trump's recent pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. The exchange denied the allegation, saying the USD1 listing had been approved well in advance as part of its "ordinary course of business."