Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase Inc., speaks on the Singapore Fintech Festival in Singapore, November 4, 2022.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cryptocurrency exchange president Coin baseBrian Armstrong, doubled down on his criticism of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission head Gary Gensler on Monday, but added that the stock market is not going to leave the U.S. despite the regulatory uncertainty the corporate faces in that country.
Coinbase has recently come under intense regulatory scrutiny within the United States after a dismal 12 months for the crypto industry during which big firms like FTX and Terra collapsed, prices plummeted, and investors lost billions of dollars.
The SEC earlier this 12 months provided Coinbase with a Wells notice, a letter the regulator sends to an organization or business after an SEC investigation concludes that the SEC plans to take enforcement motion against them.
At the center of the regulator’s dispute with Coinbase and plenty of other crypto firms is the allegation that it sells unregistered securities to investors. Coinbase denies this.
“The SEC is a little bit of an outlier here,” Armstrong told CNBC’s Dan Murphy in an interview in Dubai on Monday. “There’s form of a solo crusade, in case you will, with Gary Gensler being the chair there, and he’s taken a more anti-crypto approach for some reason.”
“I do not think he’s necessarily trying to control the industry as much as he can limit it. But it has created some lawsuits and I believe it’s pretty useless for the US industry, nevertheless it’s also a possibility for Coinbase to go get that clarity from the courts that we expect will really profit the crypto industry and likewise the US usually.”
The SEC was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Armstrong also backtracked on a suggestion he made last month that the corporate could possibly be forced to maneuver its headquarters overseas.
“Coinbase has no intention of moving overseas,” Armstrong said. “We will all the time be present within the US … But the US is a bit behind without delay.”
“I might say that within the EU, for instance, we see a more thoughtful approach [European Union]in reality they’d already adopted comprehensive crypto regulation, the UK was incredibly friendly and for us there, and that was the hub where we selected to serve the UK market.”
At an April fintech conference in London, Armstrong said Coinbase may consider moving outside of the US if the present regulatory difficulties persist. He said the US “has the potential to turn into a vital crypto market” but currently lacks regulatory clarity.
He said if it continues like this, Coinbase will consider options to speculate more overseas, including relocating from the US to other destinations.
Despite this, Armstrong said on Monday that Coinbase wants to extend its international investments, stating that it’s “very interested” within the United Arab Emirates as a rustic to speculate in additional. Dubai is a very favorable regulator in the case of cryptocurrencies, courting firms like Binance and Kraken.
Noting that this was his first visit to the UAE, Armstrong said: “I’m here to learn, listen and meet with the relevant regulators each in Abu Dhabi and here in Dubai and choose if it’s a great thing place for us to serve a big region of the world.”
