DC think tank Coin Center receives $1 million donation from Grayscale

Coin Center, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, has received a $1 million donation from Grayscale Investments.

Grayscale said Monday that on top of the direct donation, it would match up to $1 million in additional donations to the crypto policy-focused firm.

“We’re grateful and humbled by this generous commitment from Grayscale and the ongoing commitment by so many other individuals and firms who support us,” said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, in a statement.

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The donation comes as activity on the U.S. government's crypto policy front continues to ramp up. Coin Center played a prominent role in marshaling opposition to the Trump administration's proposed wallet regulations, unveiled last month, and in particular the truncated public-comment period. The future of that proposal is now unclear, given recent moves by the new Biden administration.

Indeed, Grayscale's donation also arrives just days after a new administration took power in Washington, D.C. With that comes new faces at the top of relevant agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Recent news developments indicate that those agencies are set to be led by policymakers with past experience in the crypto realm.

“We exist to ensure that there’s a voice in Washington for open, permissionless cryptocurrency networks, which are public goods from which everyone benefits,” Brito said. “The funds we raise are crucial to helping our team do all we can in ensuring that the ecosystem continues to mature and grow.”

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MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.