Coinbase CEO discusses why he believes crypto is ‘the future of money’

As optimism grows for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve a spot bitcoin ETF (BTC-USD), Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong sits down with Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi to discuss his 2024 outlook, calling crypto “”the future of money.””

Despite regulatory headwinds, Armstrong notes crypto’s resilience, with prices up 90% year-to-date. However, he says the “”unclear rulebook”” so far features “”a lot of unanswered questions,”” causing “”consumer harm”” in the absence of clear-cut regulation. With Congress and courts left to navigate standards, Armstrong views crypto oversight in the US as being “”behind”” that of other countries.
Nonetheless, Armstrong remains bullish on further adoption driving crypto’s staying power. He believes an approved spot bitcoin ETF could spur another influx of investors and institutional capital while also raising awareness — though he cautions that additional policy clarity is still needed on crypto’s path towards mainstream viability as an asset class.

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Yahoo finance executive editor Brian sazy sat down with coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and first asked him about his outlook for crypto in 2024 well we really believe that crypto is the future of money and that’s already here so it’s not just a speculative asset class people are now

Using it for all kinds of different types of utility and we always believed that the industry would evolve in this kind of three pillars you know we felt like it would start as an asset class people would trade speculatively then it would become a new type of financial

Service with people doing stable coin payments and commerce remittance payments earning yield on their assets getting borrow borrowing and lending with Defi and now you know we’re even starting to see this third pillar come online which is crypto as a new type of application platform this is what people

Are calling web 3 it’s a new way for people to build applications in a totally decentralized way with decentralized identity decentralized social networks decentralized scientific research and it’s kind of the future of the internet so it’s much bigger than people I think realize who are still thinking about about it just as one

Asset class and that’s something that’s exciting since we last talked I think it was the Gman Sachs Tech conference a couple months ago but just the prices of uh Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone through the roof what do you think is driving that is it fundamental

Or is this more is this a good oldfashioned speculative move in crypto well you know you can always look back at these things at 2020 hindsight and try to make sense of it but I think in this case a few things one is we’ve had a number of ETFs being filed by the

Biggest you know asset managers and Financial Service firms in the world and by the way coinbase has been named as of course the custodian and almost all of those which is great but we’re I think the market is hoping and anticipating as we are that in q1 we’ll see some of those

Approvals come through but more importantly I think what people are reacting to this year is crypto is here to stay I mean think about all the bad headlines the enforcement actions there were CEOs going to jail and yet crypto prices are up 90% year to date and so I

Think the industry is kind of sending a very clear message here that this this technology is here to stay uh you know 38% of young people if you survey them they say they think crypto is the best way they have to have some new sort of Economic Opportunity in life 90% of

Americans are frustrated and upset with the current Financial system as it exists and so yes there’s going to be ups and downs but this movement’s here to stay and we need to send that message to Washington too by the way because I think not everyone there is aware of

That the the the Bitcoin um that that ETF when do you see that being approved and then once and if something along those lines gets approved what happens what happens to the Bitcoin prices what happens to this industry yeah well of course you know I don’t have any kind of

Inside information about when exactly would be approved but I think myself and others in the industry we’re all kind of hoping that might happen early next year but what happens is Big New Pools of capital can now flow into these ETFs uh there’s certain pools of capital where

Their restrictions or by laws don’t allow them to say sign up to a coinbase account and own digital assets directly but they can own an ETF and so these are where the largest pools of capital in the world you know pensions endowments um hedge funds things like that where

They may be able to now move into the into the crypto space now just owning a Bitcoin ETF is great you’re going to be able to get exposure to bitcoin but I also think it’s going to bring a lot of people into the crypto space who may

Want to trade and own other assets they may want to use crypto they might want to earn yield on their assets or do institutional financing and so um I see it as a benefit not only for Bitcoin bringing more pools of capital but also for coinbase’s existing business uh

Coinbase Prime for our institutions coinbase retail for our retail customers it’s also just going to drive activity and awareness there so I think it’s all around good and coinbase has a place to play in the value chain here directly with customers but also as a custodian for the ETFs you’ve been very vocal

Brian on the need for regulation whatever form that may be I mean do you think new laws would have prevented some the blowups we saw in 2022 yes I do I mean look some of the rules are already clear they’re out there you have to follow AML kyc rules

Ofac sanctions and I think that part of the ecosystem is already pretty clear but there’s a whole bunch of questions which are not answered currently under the law um about you know just a great example is are some of these assets a security or a commodity right um Gary

Gendler when he was asked uh by Congress this question for ethereum which is one of the major assets you know he couldn’t answer that question and so these are Big unanswered questions in the space now what has this done I mean it’s basically driven a lot of the activity

Offshore to unregulated platforms those have had major issues this year as as everyone has seen and that’s caused a lot of consumer harm including for American investors and so when there’s not a clear rule book the industry is not going to be built in America that’s bad for the American economy but it’s

Also bad for American retail investors who are getting hurt by going offshore of these unregulated products so ideally the first case option would have been The Regulators work with industry under the administrative procedures act they do a rul making process publish clear rules everyone has to follow the same

Rules that would allow the industry to kind of flourish in us since that didn’t happen uh instead we’ve had to kind of rely on the courts to create case law to create some precedent and we’re ultimately I think going to have to rely on Congress to pass new legislation that

Would clarify you know which where is the cftc and the SEC what are their roles in this so it’s not having this Turf War lack of clarity pushing the industry offshore and the last thing I’ll just say is I I think the US is actually kind of behind on this I mean

83% of the G20 countries out there have already started work on crypto regulations and new laws so the US is is behind there are two bills going through the house right now that have gotten bipartisan support in house committees we’re hoping those go to a full floor

House vote early next year you’re really plugged into the the DC and the regulatory scene Brian as you should I mean it makes sense you have to be up to breast up to date on this stuff do you get that sense that Regulators are taking uh what Jamie Diamond said

Seriously on a potential ban of crypto no I don’t think that’s serious and it’s actually strange because although Jamie Diamond’s comments were a bit perplexing internally at at JP Morgan they’re actually advancing several projects working on blockchain and crypto technology so they’re such a large organization I think sometimes the

Leftand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing but no there’s no world in the United States where you know 52 million Americans have used crypto now um this isn’t you know 38% of young people believe this is an important tool for their economic growth in the future I

Mean it would be political suicide to be anti- crypto and try to ban it to that extent right and so I I think next year um we need to send a very clear message on that there’s actually there’s an organization um stand withth crypto.com base in the US and trying to

Get to a million of them that will raise their hand next year before the elections and kind of say all right I really want to be a crypto Advocate I want to vote for pro crypto candidates I want to donate I want to call my congressman and representatives so

Between the $78 million super pack that came out yesterday which is a huge step for the crypto industry and this stand with crypto.com