California Charts Regulatory Path for NFTs in Campaign Finance

Amber Maltbie, Bill Powers and Mariel Turner authored the article “Calif. Charts Regulatory Path for NFTs in Campaign Finance” for Law360. The article examines the impact of California's Fair Political Practices Commission issuing guidance addressing the use of digital assets for fundraising purposes by campaigns and political action committees.

Although the Federal Election Commission and many states have addressed the use of cryptocurrency to make political contributions, California appears to be the first state to address the use of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, head-on.

The California NFT opinion will provide important lessons for addressing the use of new technologies in campaigning in the 2022 election and beyond, for other campaign regulators, and for NFT creators and trading platforms grappling with this issue.