Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Takes Jab At U.S. SEC, Asserts “Staking” Is Not A Security

Coinbase News: In the midst of a widespread regulatory crypto crackdown, Brian Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., stated that the “staking” service offered by many in the crypto space should not be considered a security. In a recent telecasted interview, Armstrong also cited reasons for its recent removal of rival Binance’s BUSD stablecoin and their present relationship with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Brian Positive On Crypto Staking

Armstrong has had previous disagreements with the Chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, and the company has recently stated that it may not remove a particular crypto asset even if the SEC asserts it to be security — until a final legal ruling on the matter. As per Coinbase’s CEO, the crypto exchange has been served with investigative subpoenas from the financial watchdog involving staking, stablecoins, and their yield-bearing services.

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Throughout the interview, the 40-year-old crypto mogul seemed hell-bent on the fact that Coinbase’s staking services could not be deemed a security as they provide a service that “passes through those coins to help them participate in staking, which is a decentralized protocol.”

While talking about the recent crackdown on Kraken’s staking by the SEC, Armstrong was quoted as saying:

We are prepared to defend that in court if we need to. But we are never looking for a fight. We want to work collaboratively with regulators all over the world.

Armstrong stressed on the fact that the exchange maintains a cordial relationship with the SEC despite certain disagreements and differing opinions.

Coinbase CEO Opens Up On BUSD

When asked about the delisting of Binance’s stablecoin from the exchange, Brian stated that the decision came on the heels of liquidity concerns related to the cryptocurrency. According to their internal review, the fact that Paxos — the issuer of BUSD — was ordered to cease minting of the stablecoin, raised questions about its future and declining liquidity in the crypto market. It’s also speculated that the SEC intended to file a lawsuit against Paxos for marketing BUSD as an unregistered security.

However, Armstrong has a positive outlook on the wider stablecoin industry, in spite of what occurred with the Binance exchange. The CEO added that he is “quite bullish” on USD Coin (USDC), which is also a dollar-pegged stablecoin, issued by Circle along with Coinbase as its founding member. At the time of writing, USDC’s price remained pegged to its one-dollar value at a $42 billion market cap.

Even with the recent developments, the exchange’s trading volumes dropped sharply as mentioned in Coinbase’s Q4 earnings report, which resulted in a $557 million loss for the company and a 75% decrease in revenue. This decline occurred in the midst of a number of famous industry bankruptcies and following scandals.

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