“SEC the only regulator not willing to meet Coinbase,” Brian Armstrong
CEO OF Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, has claimed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the only government authority that has been unwilling to talk with the firm regarding crypto assets.
Speaking on September 24 during Anthony Pompliano’s Best Business Show, Armstrong had also revealed that after Coinbase going public in April when he visited Washington, the SEC was the only regulatory body in the United States that refused to see him.
Armstrong shared that he had reached out to the authorities at SEC trying to get a meeting with them, but the agency responded by saying that they “weren’t meeting with any crypto companies.”
At the show’s episode, Armstrong also highlighted his Coinbase’s issues with SEC’s approach earlier in September, when the enforcement agency had threatened to sue the company had it gone ahead with the launch of a USD coin (USDC) lending program which was proposed to offer 4 per cent annual yields.
He stated that despite several other firms offering the same, the SEC had refused permission for the Coinbase program and had offered no explanation for its conclusion on the decision.
During the live interview, Coinbase CEO Armstrong also noted that the SEC hadn’t changed its view since the instance and did not even call or communicate with the Coinbase team.
He even disclosed that Coinbase was considering the SEC to court but soon realized the tiff wasn’t worth a legal battle, especially when there was a lot of “deference given to regulators” within the court system.
Coinbase has now decided to take back the offering and would instead maintain towards the sidelines until the entire regulatory landscape around crypto lending services become transparent.
He explained that the firm has a deep focus on concentrating their efforts towards “more important things in crypto”, such as questions around which tokens can be securities and how the DeFi can be put to use.
Speaking about the reception of crypto in Washington, Armstrong said it was a 50/50 split between those who find it “risky” and those who are not willing to miss the opportunity provided by the growing crypto industry.
On September 22 at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Armstrong also revealed that Coinvbase was presently working on a regulatory framework that it would put forward to the US policymakers in the upcoming one month.
Through the framework, Coinbase hopes to be an “advisor” that can potentially advocate for a series of “sensible regulations” as regulators had been asking the firm multiple times for a draft legal framework.
