In a recent interview, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed that the highly anticipated version of the Senate's cryptocurrency market structure still has a chance of passing this year, despite recent setbacks.
Cryptocurrency bill sees “strong” bipartisan cooperation
Following Wednesday's roundtables between cryptocurrency industry CEOs and lawmakers from both parties, Armstrong told CNBC that he believes the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA) could see significant progress in the next few weeks, with bipartisan support growing.
“We had a great meeting with Democrats in the Senate and on the Republican side today,” he stressed. “The good news is that there is strong bipartisan support and will to get this market structure legislation done. It’s important for America, and the 50 million Americans who use cryptocurrencies want to see it done.”
The CEO sees 90% of the disputes that delayed the Senate Banking Committee's preliminary hearing on the bill as “already aligned and agreed upon,” with “a lot of significant cross-functional collaboration” occurring to address remaining issues.
Armstrong also revealed that during meetings with Senate Democrats, they addressed the controversial proposal to regulate the DeFi sector that was leaked and appears to have halted bipartisan talks on the legislation for nearly two weeks.
As Bitcoinist reported, Senate Democrats and Republicans have allegedly been bickering behind the scenes over a leaked proposal to regulate DeFi platforms. The document proposed creating a “clear” regulatory framework for DeFi platforms by “defining accountability, clarifying oversight, and preventing the misuse of decentralized protocols for illicit finance, evading sanctions, or bypassing market barriers.”
The proposal has received backlash from Republican lawmakers and cryptocurrency industry leaders, including Armstrong, who argued that it “would stifle innovation and prevent the United States from becoming the cryptocurrency capital of the world.”
According to the CEO of Coinbase, Senate Democrats have informed us that this proposal is not serious. He also noted that the incident highlighted the importance of maintaining DeFi as a source of innovation, adding that they had a “productive conversation” about regulating central intermediaries, not protocols.
Some online reports claimed that tensions between the two parties escalated during the October 22 meeting, leading to a heated confrontation between a senator and a cryptocurrency executive over the leaked proposal and political alignments.
Is approval of the draft market structure law back on track?
On Program However, it remains unclear who will take the first step to resume negotiations between the two parties, when an additional date will be agreed upon, and how the government shutdown will affect these talks.
Armstrong believes there is a “good chance” the cryptocurrency market structure bill will “make it out of the Senate Banking Committee by Thanksgiving, with draft texts likely to be released “in the next month or so.”
He also noted that the government shutdown “did not prevent the Senate and its staff from continuing to work” on the legislation. For the CEO, lawmakers want the market structure bill to have a similar impact to the stablecoin framework, which “unleashed a wave of payment activity in the cryptocurrency space and gave an opportunity to really export the US dollar around the world and all these dollar-denominated accounts.”
“I hope that this will be accomplished this year. I think we have a good chance to do that,” he stressed. “If we get it out of committee before Thanksgiving, there's a chance we can get it done in December,” he continued. This timeline will allow both chambers of Congress to come together and put cryptocurrency legislation on US President Donald Trump's desk, “hopefully soon after.”
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