Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the Senate Banking Committee’s draft crypto market structure bill is unacceptable in its current form.
“After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written,”
Brian Armstrong said.
Armstrong warned the proposal could restrict tokenisation, decentralised finance, and stablecoins while weakening financial privacy.
He said the draft amounts to “a defacto ban on tokenised equities” and includes “DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy.”
Armstrong also argued the bill would erode the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s authority in favour of the SEC.
He said proposed amendments could eliminate stablecoin rewards and allow banks to block competition.
“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,”
Brian Armstrong said.
Armstrong added that Coinbase remains engaged in negotiations and optimistic about reaching a better outcome.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper publicly supported Armstrong’s position on social media.
“Brian Armstrong makes sense here. The current Senate compromise is worse than no bill at all. Sounds like the banks have been meddling,”
Tim Draper said.
Industry figures warned overly restrictive legislation could undermine innovation, competition, and US leadership in digital assets.