Armstrong touted the potential of tokenization to give people without access to brokers a way to invest in high-quality assets, and reaffirmed his prediction that Bitcoin could hit a high value by 2030.
Coinbase Global Inc.’s Brian Armstrong still sees a path for the US to pass comprehensive crypto legislation even after helping to derail a bill last week just before it reached a key Senate committee over concerns around a host of issues.
Armstrong, the co-founder and chief executive officer of the largest US crypto exchange, pulled support for the latest draft of digital asset market structure legislation in a Jan. 14 social media post. Within hours of Armstrong’s post, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott announced he would postpone a planned markup. Armstrong said the draft he opposed contained “too many giveaways to tradfi,” in an interview with Bloomberg News at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“I’m not seeing any real barriers here,” Armstrong said of the path forward on passing the market-structure bill. “There are some people a little grumpy, I think they got caught off guard that we didn’t support the draft as-is.”
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The cryptocurrency industry has gained political sway after becoming the largest corporate spender during the 2023-2024 election cycle, directing funds toward favored candidates. Coinbase donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, and is among the companies contributing donations to finance the president’s proposed ballroom for the White House. Coinbase offers customers 3.5% back on their balances of USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Group Inc.
The banking lobby has fiercely opposed crypto firms offering rewards tied to stablecoin balances, arguing they threaten to drain deposits out of the banking system and weaken community lending.
“The bank lobbying groups and bank associations are out there trying to ban their competition,” Armstrong said. “I have zero tolerance for that, I think it’s un-American and it harms consumers.”
Despite the legislative hiccups, Armstrong said 2025 was a banner year for crypto, citing the passage of the first federal regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers in July. Since then, financial institutions have more openly expressed interest in digital assets. Coinbase partners with five of the top 20 largest banks in the world on digital asset projects, Armstrong said. He re-affirmed his prediction that Bitcoin could hit $1 million by 2030.
Armstrong also touted the exchange’s work surrounding tokenized assets. He argued that tokenization has the potential to give people without access to brokers a way to invest in high-quality assets. The New York Stock Exchange announced this week its building a venue using blockchain technology to allow for 24-hour, seven-day-a-week trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds.
“For people who only make their income from labor, they’re often times left out of this wealth creation engine, which is the ability to invest some of their hard earned money in high quality assets, so that’s what we’re trying to do with tokenization of every asset class,” Armstrong said.
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