PALM BEACH, Fla. – Banking trade groups, rather than individual banks, are primarily responsible for the stalled negotiations over cryptocurrency market structure legislation, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said.
Banks themselves are seeing cryptocurrencies as an opportunity, he said Wednesday at the World Freedom Forum held in Mar-a-Lago.
“For some reason, sometimes established industries have trade groups and view the world with a zero-sum mentality. [where they believe] “For banks to win, cryptocurrencies have to lose,” he said. “They don’t see this as a positive thing.” [step]”.
Banking trade groups have represented the industry at meetings with the crypto industry hosted by the White House since the Senate Banking Committee’s push to advance market structure legislation failed last month. At the last such meeting, which took place last week, the banking industry stood firm in its demands that the bill block stablecoin rewards.
The next meeting will take place on Thursday morning, people familiar with the plan told CoinDesk.
Read More: Crypto Banking Adversaries Failed to Reach Deal at Latest White House Meeting on Bill
Armstrong said he expected some kind of compromise in which banks would have new benefits under a new market structure bill, although he did not elaborate. When the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act stalled the night before a Senate Banking Committee hearing, it was after Armstrong publicly withdrew support for his company.
In the current conversations, the Coinbase co-founder argued that individual small and medium-sized banks were not really afraid of deposit flight to stablecoin issuers, but instead said their most pressing concerns were deposit flight to larger banks.
Major banks are also leaning into cryptocurrencies, he said, adding that Coinbase is supporting the crypto infrastructure of “five of the largest banks in the world.”
Other banks are hiring blockchain or cryptocurrency-focused employees on LinkedIn.
“We now live in this world where we have regulated US stablecoins with rewards,” he said. “You have to accept that as a reality and decide whether you want to treat it as an opportunity or a threat.”
