U.S. Must Embrace Crypto Or Risk Being Left Behind: Coinbase CEO
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
The U.S. is at risk of being left behind by the world of cryptocurrencies as other countries more quickly embrace digital assets, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said Monday.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Armstrong noted that China began working on a digital currency back in 2014. But as seen with its tight grip on the nationβs internet, the Chinese government has looked to deploy crypto as a means of control, he addedβmaking it all the more important that democracies allow crypto to flourish freely.
βIn the free world, this technology needs to be embraced,β Armstrong said. βIt can be regulated to make it safe and trusted. But the democracies in the free world need to embrace this to have some kind of an answer to other countries trying to lock it down.β
The U.S. governmentβs slow pace in deciding how to regulate crypto was a major theme during Armstrongβs panel with Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of asset management firm ARK Invest, and Michael Piwowar, executive director of Milkenβs Center for Financial Markets. Wood said she βexpected more clarityβ from regulators by now; the only thing made clear from the federal government so far, she noted, is that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not securities.
βWe want our country to do the right thing from a regulatory point of view,β she said. βWe enjoyed incredible benefits from the birthing of the internet here. This is just the next generation of the internet, so let's get with the program.β
Investment in the crypto and blockchain space skyrocketed last year to more than $30 billion, up from $5.4 billion in 2020, according to the consultancy KPMG. Myriad sectors have recently delved into crypto, from automakers to entertainment companies. But thereβs still plenty of skepticism about the industryβfrom issues around the environmental cost of mining tokens to concerns about the criminal use of cryptocurrencies.
Although the U.S. has moved slowly, Armstrong said there are signs for optimism. He noted President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order directing federal agencies to come up with a plan to regulate cryptocurrencies. And when Armstrongβwho heads one of the largest crypto exchange platforms in the worldβheads to Capitol Hill, heβs seeing more βpro-cryptoβ lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, he said.
βIt's actually getting harder and harder to meet a true crypto skeptic in D.C.,β Armstrong said.
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Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.