Brian Armstrong To Meet With Democrats To Discuss National Security and Tax Issues Relating to Crypto: Report

The head of the largest US-based crypto exchange by trading volume is meeting with politicians to discuss an agenda for crypto.

According to a new Bloomberg report, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is meeting with House Democrats to discuss crypto as it relates to national security, climate and tax.

Armstrong will in private on Wednesday with the New Democratic Coalition, a Democrat policy thinktank, to discuss the issues as Coinbase continues to face a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) alleging the exchange acted as a securities broker without proper licensing.

According to the report, there is confusion currently in the industry over which regulator should oversee crypto – the SEC or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

According to Armstrong,

“This is why the US Congress is introducing new legislation to fix the situation.”

Yesterday, a New York federal judge said the SEC could have given Coinbase a heads-up that it could be violating securities laws before approving its application to go public.

However, SEC counsel Peter Mancuso says the agency’s approval of Coinbase’s S-1 application to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) does not mean the commission ever gave its stamp of approval to the crypto exchange’s entire business.

“Simply because the SEC allows a company to go public does not mean that the SEC is blessing the underlying business or the underlying business structure or saying that the underlying business structure is not in violation of the law.

There is no evidence being put forth that the SEC looked at specific assets and made specific determinations and then gave Coinbase comfort that this would not later be found to be a security.”

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