Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong ‘Bullish’ on Getting Crypto Bill Passed This Year

Coinbase cofounder and CEO Brian Armstrong said in a Thursday (Oct. 23) post on X that he had met with senators from both parties and is “bullish” on getting a crypto market structure bill passed this year.

“DC may be shut down, but momentum for market structure clarity is at an all-time high,” Armstrong said. “I sat down with Senate Democrats and Republicans who want to get this done — we’re 90% there.”

“Both sides are working hard to figure out the final 10%, and we’re getting close,” Armstrong said in the post.

Armstrong added that he is “bullish” on a bill getting out of committee by Thanksgiving and passed by the end of the year.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Oct. 22) that about a dozen crypto industry leaders, including Armstrong, met with U.S. senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss the crypto market structure bill that is currently in the Senate.

The crypto leaders participated in two separate meetings, one with Democrats and the other with Republicans, each of which lasted over an hour, Bloomberg reported, citing its interview with one of the participants, Chainlink Labs cofounder Sergey Nazarov.

According to the report, a spokesperson for New York Senator Chuck Schumer confirmed the senator attended one of the meetings.

The report also quoted a Republican spokesperson for the Senate Banking Committee, Jeff Naft, who said: “The meeting was productive, with stakeholders providing feedback and reaffirming support for a bipartisan approach.”

Nazarov told Bloomberg that Republican senators expressed their support for the crypto industry and the crypto market structure bill, while Democratic senators questioned the industry’s representatives about illicit finance and decentralized finance.

“They realize the economic value of the industry is high, so they need to address how they are going to deal with it, they need to address it correctly,” Nazarov said of all the lawmakers.

It was reported Wednesday that the government shutdown was slowing progress on the Clarity Act and other crypto issues. Because the Senate is largely focused on issues around the shutdown, it is running out of time to consider bills having to do with the regulation of crypto markets, CoinDesk reported Wednesday.

The House passed the Clarity Act in July, but the fate of a similar bill in the Senate was uncertain, according to reports at the time. The bill would establish a broad regulatory structure for digital assets.

PYMNTS reported Thursday that Senate committees are under pressure to pass the Clarity Act before the end of the year, in part because the political conditions may shift after the elections, making passage of a crypto markets bill more challenging.