Brian Armstrong, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, is confident that the United States will achieve regulatory cryptocurrency, “even if it takes a while.” However, he believes this is the vital component to luring entrepreneurs back to the country.
Armstrong sat down for an interview with Wall Street Journal on June 11 just days after the SEC filed a lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase on June 6 – alleging that it has been operating a securities exchange, broker-dealership and clearing house without registering with the commission.
Full WSJ interview on YouTubehttps://t.co/yIF3dGI7oN
— Brian Armstrong ️ (@brian_armstrong) June 10, 2023
Armstrong addressed the lawsuit in the WSJ interview, explaining that he believes those registrations weren’t required for Coinbase to operate.
“The assets that we do trade, those are commodities, so they don’t require those registrations […] we are trading on our exchange crypto commodities.”
He also denied that Coinbase claims to be a broker-dealer, however noted that its broker-dealer licence has not been approved yet.
“We don’t claim to be a broker-dealer, we have acquired a broker-dealer license that is still dormant, because they won’t allow us to activate it” he said.
As for regulations, Armstrong explained that it isn’t “rocket science” and the U.S is going to get to the “right outcome, even if it takes a while.”
He noted the importance of the Coinbase lawsuit for the cryptocurrency industry in the U.S, as a whole, as he hopes it will lead to more clarity and prevent the country from “falling behind” the rest of the world.
He believes only once there is more clarity and stability with cryptocurrency regulation in the United States, will crypto businesses start coming back to the country.
“We will see entrepreneurs who left the US come back. They’ll say we won’t be attacked randomly or have incredibly high legal bills at any given moment.”
Cointelegraph previously reported on April 11 that the share of global crypto developers in the US declined by 26% from 2018 to 2022, with the report citing “little regulatory clarity” as a major factor and as a result “America’s edge may be slipping.”
He highlighted key regulation points that he believes need to be clarified, including clear “boundaries” between the two major United States financial regulators – the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
He pointed out that while other countries, such as the United Kingdom have one financial regulator, the US is currently witnessing a “turf war” due to having two regulatory bodies.
Related: SEC lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase unify the crypto industry
He believes that many of the fundamental regulations can simply be transferred from traditional finance such as basic consumer protection, financial statement audit requirements, and procedures for both Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC).
Armstrong reiterated that there is currently “no clear rule book” for cryptocurrency regulations in the U.S., and despite continuously asking the SEC for more clarity, Coinbase couldn’t “get any feedback.”
This comes after Armstrong responded to the SEC lawsuit against Coinbase over Twitter, on June 7, saying that he is proud to “represent the industry in court” and get some “clarity around crypto rules.”
Magazine: Binance, Coinbase head to court, and the SEC labels 67 crypto-securities: Hodler’s Digest, June 4-10
