18-7-2023 (SAN FRANCISCO) Brian Armstrong, the Chief Executive Officer of Coinbase, is scheduled to have a private meeting with a group of House Democrats on Wednesday morning. During the meeting, Armstrong plans to address the future of digital asset legislation, as well as touch upon related issues including tax, national security, privacy, and climate, according to a statement from a spokesperson for the New Democrat Coalition.
The meeting takes place amid ongoing lawsuits faced by Coinbase and Binance, two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The lawsuits allege that both exchanges failed to register their operations with the agency.
If the SEC’s lawsuits are successful, they could have far-reaching implications for the crypto market, establishing the SEC’s jurisdiction over the industry. The industry has long argued that tokens do not qualify as securities and, therefore, should not be subject to regulation by the commission.
Coinbase and Binance have denied the allegations made by the SEC and have vowed to vigorously defend themselves in court.
Brian Armstrong has been an outspoken critic of the SEC, particularly SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whom he has referred to as an “outlier” among policymakers in Washington.
