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Medical marijuana vendors in Seattle happily accept crypto, residents don’t need to file income tax returns, and the governor signed a law expanding the state’s adoption of blockchain technology but isn’t a fan of crypto mining. Coinme and Bittrex are headquartered in the city, and a few Binance servers are located here, too, which is how CZ got charged in the state and sent to prison. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for crypto in Seattle.
Fast facts
City: Seattle
Country: United States
Population: 3.5 million
Founded: 1851
Most common languages: English
Jump to: Crypto Culture, Projects and companies, Financial infrastructure, Where can I spend crypto? Education, Controversies and collapses, Notable figures in Seattle Metropolitan area and former residents
Tell me about Seattle…
The largest city in Washington is the gateway to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
It is known for its liberal use of a certain green plant, the headquarters of Amazon, and is the setting for iconic movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and The Ring, as well as the TV sitcom Frasier. Several professional sports teams are based in the city, including the Mariners, Seahawks and Kraken — the hockey players, not the cryptocurrency exchange. In the 1990s, it was the spiritual home of Grunge music.
Many tourists visit Seattle to see the original Starbucks location and the surrounding Pike Place Market, which contains the famous gum wall. However, most know the city for its distinct skyline, which features the Space Needle, built for the 1962 World’s Fair. Like the nearby capital of Olympia, Seattle stands out for its network of ferries to islands in the connecting Puget Sound and access to Vancouver, Canada by highway and rail.
Rain and overcast skies often cloud impressions of Seattle, but the area is considerably greener than many US cities. Native American influence is seen in the names of many neighborhoods and surrounding areas. Superfans of the young adult novel series Twilight often visit, drawn by the nearby town of Forks.
Lake Washington separates the downtown area from the cities of Bellevue and Redmond, where the headquarters of Nintendo of America and Microsoft are located. Taking Interstate 5 north leads to Boeing’s manufacturing facilities in the nearby town of Everett. As with many US cities, Seattle faces challenges with a high cost of living and a large homeless population.
Seattle’s crypto culture
Washington is one of only a handful of states that does not require residents to file personal income tax returns. While the urban areas tend to lean left, many conservatives are based in the eastern parts of the state and scattered around cities like Seattle.
“Seattle, despite its reputation for modern left politics, has a solid anarchic/classical liberal bent,” said Brandon Black, organizer of Seattle Bitcoin Meetup. “I think people are attracted to that cultural leaning, as well as the casual/grunge social scene.”
Governor Jay Inslee, though not known to be particularly pro- or anti-crypto, signed a bill into law in 2022 to expand the state’s adoption of blockchain technology.
The governor listed “blockchain” as one of the issues affecting the state’s economy but reportedly considered crypto mining firms to be an unnecessary use of electricity. The state’s Department of Financial Institutions has also issued alerts and cracked down on crypto firms allegedly operating illegally.
The Emerald City has been home to some small- and medium-sized crypto and blockchain conferences, including ETH Seattle, the BlockchainNW Summit, TF Labs’ blockchain conference, the Blockchain Seattle conference and NFT Seattle.
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Crypto projects and companies
Seattle has been attracting innovators since before personal computers existed. Luxury department store Nordstrom has been based in Seattle since 1901; William Boeing founded the aircraft (and now spacecraft) company with his namesake in 1916; and Microsoft’s decision to move to the Pacific Northwest in 1979 greatly contributed to the city becoming a major tech hub.
“Seattle has been connected with Bitcoin from the very beginning,” said Black. “One of the earliest Bitcoin applications, Satoshi Dice, was developed here, and during previous bull runs, there has been a thriving cash Bitcoin trade between Seattle, Portland and Vancouver.”
With the advent of cryptocurrency and blockchain, major firms headquartered in Silicon Valley, including Block, Gemini and BitGo, have regional offices or staff in Seattle.
Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinme and Bittrex are headquartered in Seattle, and some of Binance’s servers are based in the area — which unhappily for former CEO Changpeng Zhao led to prosecutors indicting him in the Western District of Washington.
Last year the Seattle team of crypto recovery firm Unciphered offered to crack a hard drive owned by former Ripple chief technology officer Stefan Thomas. The information to access the drive containing 7,002 BTC — worth hundreds of millions of dollars — was lost years ago, with only two access attempts remaining before the data is permanently erased.
Other companies based in the Emerald City, both past and present, include crypto startup Stably, analytics firm WeMeta Labs, crypto and cashback rewards company StormX, Bitcoin mining firm Luxor, cryptocurrency custodian Protego and Omni Foundation, the firm backing the Omni Network.
Crypto financial infrastructure in Seattle
In May 2014, Coinme operated one of the first Bitcoin ATMs in the United States at the Spitfire Grill in the Belltown area of Seattle. The restaurant has since closed, but dispensary firm American Green launched its own medical marijuana vending machine in 2015 that accepted Bitcoin at a time when both were testing new legal ground.
As of June 2024, Coinme listed more than 400 locations in the Seattle Metropolitan Area where one can buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, including Coinstar machines and Moneygram.
Where can I spend crypto in Seattle?
Coinme lists several locations where crypto users can exchange Bitcoin for goods and services, including cafes, furniture stores and moving companies. One aspect that is somewhat unique to Seattle is the number of cannabis retailers able to accept crypto in exchange for “green.” Kush21 near SeaTac Airport is one such location, and ZaZZZ marijuana vending machines debuted in 2015, allowing purchases in crypto.
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Education
The University of Washington, with its main campus north of the downtown area, has had a Blockchain Society active since 2018, with membership numbering in the hundreds.
Nicolas Cary, who went on to co-found Blockchain.com, graduated from the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in nearby Tacoma, gifting the college with 14.5 BTC — worth roughly $10,000 at the time. UPS was one of the first universities in the country to accept donations in crypto.
Controversies and collapses
In November 2023, Changpeng Zhao was indicted and pleaded guilty to felony charges in the US District Court of the Western District of Washington for failing to maintain an effective Anti-Money Laundering regime at Binance while he was CEO.
Zhao’s indictment and sentencing were both held in a Seattle courtroom, where a judge ordered the former Binance executive to four months in prison.
In March 2024, officials with the US Justice Department charged semi-pro rugby player Shane Donovan Moore of the Westside Ronins with fraud over a scheme involving cryptocurrency mining equipment. Authorities alleged that he used his connections “from his rugby activities” to find investors.
In 2022, a former Coinbase Global product manager and his brother were arrested in Seattle on charges related to an insider trading scheme at the exchange. Ishan and Nikhil Wahi allegedly made $1.5 million from illegal trades by having advanced knowledge of which tokens Coinbase planned to list. The brothers were later sentenced to 24 and 10 months in prison, respectively.
Notable figures in Seattle Metropolitan area and former residents
Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates, best known for dancing at the launch event for Windows 95; crypto author and educator Vijay Boyapati; ShapeShift founder and Satoshi Dice creator Erik Voorhees; Bitcoin Foundation founding member Charlie Shrem, who reportedly first explained BTC to the Winklevoss twins; Nicolas Cary, co-founder of Blockchain.com; Tornado Cash co-founder and developer Roman Storm.
If you have any suggestions for additions to this guide, please contact turner@cointelegraph.com.
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Turner Wright
Turner Wright has been a freelance editor and writer for various publications for the last decade, and you can usually find him somewhere abroad. Gets his inspiration from a combination of nerves, green tea, and dark chocolate.