Brian Armstrong Calls SEC Commissioner Up for Re-Nomination a ‘Failure,’ Urges Senate To Vote Her Out

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong is lashing out against a U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) commissioner who is up for re-nomination.

Armstrong argues on the social media platform X that Caroline A. Crenshaw has been “a failure” as commissioner and should be voted out.

“She tried to block the Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and was worse than Gensler on some issues (which I didn’t think was possible).

The Senate Banking Committee should take note – the crypto community is watching this vote. I’m told it will be factored into Stand With Crypto scorecards for politicians.”

Stand With Crypto is a digital asset advocacy group backed by Coinbase.

Crenshaw is a Democrat who was nominated to her role by former President Donald Trump and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2020. Her term expires this year.

In January, she dissented against the SEC’s decision to greenlight spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), calling the approvals “unsound and ahistorical.”

Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett reports that the Senate Banking Committee will meet this Wednesday to vote on Crenshaw’s renomination.

No more than three members of the SEC’s five-person board of commissioners can belong to the same political party. The SEC currently has three Democratic and two Republican commissioners, though Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, both Democrats, have announced their plans to step down in early 2025.

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