Coinbase CEO to meet Democrats on digital asset regulation

Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong will meet privately with a group of Democrats from the United States House of Representatives and plans to make remarks on the future of digital asset legislation.

The meeting on Wednesday comes as Coinbase and Binance – two of the world’s largest crypto exchanges – are grappling with lawsuits brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly failing to register their operations with the agency.

At the meeting, Armstrong will also touch on related issues, such as tax, national security, privacy and climate, a New Democrat Coalition spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours from the Reuters news agency.

If the SEC lawsuits are successful, they could transform the crypto market by asserting the SEC’s jurisdiction over the industry which, for years, has argued that tokens do not constitute securities and should not be regulated by the commission.

Both Coinbase and Binance deny the SEC’s allegations and have pledged to vigorously defend themselves in court.

Armstrong is an outspoken SEC critic who has called SEC Chair Gary Gensler an “outlier” among Washington, DC policymakers.