Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says a breakthrough is on the horizon following weeks of gridlock.
Speaking alongside Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) at the World Liberty Forum in Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, Armstrong voiced some renewed optimism regarding the ongoing negotiations over U.S. market structure.
“Market structure is making great progress, and I believe we’re going to reach a win-win-win outcome. A win for the crypto industry. A win for the banks. And, most importantly, a win for the American consumer,” Armstrong said on X (formerly Twitter) after his conversation with CNBC.
Back to the negotiating table
Armstrong and other industry leaders voiced strong concerns over previous drafts of the market structure bill that sought to restrict stablecoin rewards. This is the provision that traditional banks heavily favored to protect their deposit bases. Coinbase went as far as derailing the bill.
During his live interview on CNBC, Armstrong clarified his stance on the legislative hurdle.
“What we did say was the current draft, we had some issues with it,” Armstrong explained. “I think that caused everyone to come back to the table, and there’s now a path forward where we can get a win-win-win outcome here: a win for the crypto industry, a win for the banks, and a win for the American consumer to get President Trump’s crypto agenda through to the finish line so we can make America the crypto capital of the world.”
The case for stablecoin rewards
The ability for stablecoin issuers to pass on the interest earned from underlying reserves (like U.S. Treasuries) directly to consumers is central to the debate. Traditional banks view this as a threat, but Armstrong argued it is necessary for modernizing an outdated system and keeping the U.S. globally competitive.
“If you survey Americans, 87% of them say that the current financial system doesn’t work for them. There’s too high fees, there’s delays, there’s unequal access,” Armstrong said.
He also warned that blocking these rewards could inadvertently push capital offshore or concede ground to foreign adversaries.
“We want to lean into the future and make sure that America stays competitive, because we’re existing on a global stage here, right? Like China is putting out a central bank digital currency that is paying interest,” Armstrong noted. “There’s offshore, unregulated stablecoins, which are actually much bigger than the ones that are regulated within the US perimeter right now. President Trump has said he wants to repatriate these funds to build this industry here in America. And to do that, we have to have stablecoin rewards.”
Armstrong has stressed that legacy institutions are already adapting. “So the smartest ones are all leaning into this as an opportunity. This is about it’s good for Coinbase. It’s good for the crypto industry, but it’s also good for the banking industry to embrace innovation and adoption.”
Brushing off the crash
When asked whether the recent 20% drop in Bitcoin’s price this year negatively impacts the momentum for legislative reform in Washington, Armstrong dismissed the volatility as short-term noise.
“In my view, the markets are a little bit more psychological than that,” Armstrong said, pushing back on theories linking the drop to macroeconomic fears or quantum computing threats. “People say, you know, I don’t think there’s any substantive issue, but I think other people do, and they’ll want to lock in gains and move it up and down.”
Far from panicking, Armstrong revealed that his company is treating the downturn as a buying opportunity.
“We try not to take a short-term point of view on that when crypto prices are down like this,” he stated. “Actually, Coinbase is buying Bitcoin. We’re buying our own stock back. We’re just continuing to build in these down markets.”
Senator Moreno echoed this bullish sentiment during the joint interview, telling CNBC: “If I had money to put in the market today, I would buy Bitcoin.”
