Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that Coinbase will not support the Senate’s crypto market structure draft legislation. The CEO posted to X Wednesday evening, stating that the bill has too many flaws to support passage.
“After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written,” Armstrong wrote. He went on to break down four major issues with the bill that were discovered. First, the CEO stated that the bill included a “defacto ban on tokenized equities.” Additionally, Armstrong wrote that the bill’s DeFi prohibitions give the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy. Third, the proposed crypto bill erodes most of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC. Finally, Armstrong says the bill features draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition.
“We appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bi-partisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo,” Armstrong continued in his statement. “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.”
Despite the numerous issues with the crypto market structure bill, the Coinbase CEO insists that he remains “quite optimistic that we will get to the right outcome.” Coinbase and Brian Armstrong have served as guidance for the US Government and policymakers for the last few months, especially as the US has become more pro-crypto. Several bills loosening restrictions on digital assets have already been passed in the US.
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The Senate Banking Committee is still scheduled to hold a hearing on the legislation beginning Thursday morning and intends to vote on advancing it to the overall Senate. It should be noted that lawmakers have already proposed over 75 amendments to the bill. Typically, many would be defeated or withdrawn before they’re added to the actual legislation, so it remains unclear what the finished crypto bill will look like, especially after the Coinbase CEO’s latest statement.
