Crypto on the Hill: Briefing with Brain Armstrong, Melissa Strait, Faryar Shirzad, and Paul Grewal

TL;DR I attended a Congressional Staff briefing with Brian Armstrong being the keynote speaker along with various other top execs at Coinbase. Below are some of the key points that were addressed during this hour-long meeting about the industry and Congress.

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Yesterday I was invited and attended a Congressional Staff briefing with some of the top people at Coinbase speaking and answering questions. Given how insane the last couple of weeks have been on The Hill I did not put two and two together about Coinbase flying in crypto and blockchain founders from all over to meet with Congressional Members and Committees. This briefing was a huge event with roughly 40-50 people in attendance and due to this smaller size allowed for a wide array of things to be discussed. Here are some of the most interesting things that were talked about.

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• General Crypto Comments
  • More people have interacted (bought, sold, were gifted) with crypto than there are union cardholders in the U.S.
  • Earlier this year Coinbase launched Crypto435 for crypto advocates. The goal was to find one person to advocate for crypto in each Congressional district which was quickly hit and over 20k people signed up in a little over a week.
  • Crypto435 has become Stand With Crypto and that is going to become its own crypto advocacy non-profit
  • Of crypto owners, 22% identify as Democrats, 18% as Republicans, and 22% as Independent
• Crypto Regulation
  • Almost every G20 nation is working on or has published a crypto framework. The US is not only lacking but is dead last in this area.
  • Two people were identified as leading the issue of getting regulation fixed... Gary Gensler and Elizabeth Warren
  • It is unheard of for the SEC to lose 3 cases in a row as Gary Gensler has. Further fuel was added to the fire because these judges were Democratic-appointed judges as opposed to Republican-appointed judges.
• Crypto Bills
  • All four of the participants were extremely impressed and happy with how bipartisan the recent efforts have been and how they are being handled
  • FIT21 (Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act) is looking to be voted on by the Full House in November
  • The stablecoin legislation that passed the Committee is continuously being worked on and tweaked to try and get it in the best place possible
  • They also highlighted how with the stablecoin bill this is something that Congress is only going to get one attempt at. Whatever they pass needs to hit the nail on the head otherwise a Pandora's box full of issues could emerge.

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While a bunch of other things were also touched on these are the points that I think are the most impactful to the Community. If you have any questions feel free to ask away!

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