Brian Armstrong, the CEO of cryptocurrency alternate Coinbase, emphasised that regulating crypto isn’t “rocket science” and is assured that the USA will obtain regulatory readability, “even when it takes some time.”
Armstrong sat down for an interview with The Wall Avenue Journal on June 11, simply days after the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) filed a lawsuit towards Coinbase on June 6. The SEC alleges that Coinbase has been working a securities alternate, broker-dealership and clearing home with out registering with the fee.
Full WSJ interview on YouTubehttps://t.co/yIF3dGI7oN
— Brian Armstrong ️ (@brian_armstrong) June 10, 2023
Armstrong addressed the lawsuit within the interview, explaining that he believes these registrations weren’t required for Coinbase to function.
“The belongings that we do commerce, these are commodities, in order that they don’t require these registrations […] we’re buying and selling on our alternate crypto commodities.”
Regardless of not claiming that Coinbase is a broker-dealer, Armstrong talked about that the alternate had confronted difficulties activating a license.
“We don’t declare to be a broker-dealer, now we have acquired a broker-dealer license that’s nonetheless dormant as a result of they gained’t enable us to activate it,” he mentioned.
On regulation, Armstrong defined that it isn’t “rocket science” and the U.S. will obtain the “proper final result, even when it takes some time.”
He highlighted that the SEC vs. Coinbase lawsuit is necessary for the U.S. cryptocurrency trade as an entire, and he hopes it can result in extra readability and stop the nation from “falling behind” the remainder of the world.
Armstrong thinks that after there are clear and steady rules relating to cryptocurrency within the U.S., it can encourage the return of crypto companies to the nation.
“We’ll see entrepreneurs who left the U.S. come again. They’ll say we gained’t be attacked randomly or have extremely excessive authorized payments at any given second.”
On April 11, Cointelegraph reported that the share of world crypto builders within the U.S. declined by 26% from 2018 to 2022, citing “little regulatory readability” as a big issue and, in consequence, “America’s edge could also be slipping.”
Armstrong highlighted key regulation factors that he believes should be clarified, together with clear “boundaries” between the 2 main United States monetary regulators: the SEC and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee.
He identified that whereas different nations, equivalent to the UK, have one monetary regulator, the U.S. is at present seeing a “turf warfare” between two regulatory our bodies.
Associated: SEC lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase unify the crypto industry
He believes that several 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 and Know Your Customer.
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 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
