Cody McGrath 
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues to add lobbyists to its list as the former House ArgrucutureChair is now included
FTX Hires Another lobbyist
The cryptocurrency exchange continues to hire lobbyists with connections to its favored federal regulator, the CFTC, or the Ag Committee, which regulates it, while the former top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee has signed another cryptocurrency client, trading platform FTX.
According to a lobbying disclosure submitted today, FTX has hired Mike Conaway, Scott Graves, and Matt Valesko from the Conaway Graves Group. According to the filing, they would advocate for FTX on matters “relevant to the creation of orderly digital asset markets” before Congress and the executive branch.
The Conaway Graves Group is the fourth outside organization to sign on to lobby for FTX this year and the second to do so this month. As readers may remember, FTX also registered its first inside lobbyist two weeks ago.
Influx Of Hires Coincide With Crypto Legislation
The sudden influx of hires coincided with the finalization of Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) first significant cryptocurrency legislation, which would treat the majority of digital assets as commodities rather than securities, which the SEC regulates and which the industry considers to be more hostile.
Conaway, the former chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Graves, who served as Conaway’s chief of staff and the committee’s staff director, and Charlie Thornton, a former chief of staff and CFTC COO, is now on the list of lobbyists for FTX.
Conaway, who left Congress in 2021 and registered as a lobbyist for the first time this year, has amassed a client list that includes a number of key figures in the crypto policy industry.
He and his organization also represent Ripple Labs, the cryptocurrency payments company embroiled in a legal dispute with the SEC, as a subcontractor to Williams and Jensen and the crypto trade association Association for Digital Asset Markets.