Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has suggested that regulation by enforcement is forcing the industry offshore, but his comments have agitated sections of the crypto community.
Armstrongās comments came in a Twitter thread onĀ TuesdayĀ in which the founder railed against the current political and regulatory climate in the U.S. That was enough to trigger anger from a number of quarters.Ā
U.S. being left behind
In recent years the U.S. technology manufacturing industry has found itself playing second fiddle to rivals in Asia including China, Taiwan and South Korea.Ā
Armstrong sees a parallel within the cryptocurrency sector. As Armstrong argues the U.S. is in danger of being left behind and weakened due to overbearing regulation.
āOne of the strongest policy arguments for cryptocurrency is that itās a nationalĀ securityĀ issue. The US missed on semiconductors and 5G which is now largely manufactured offshore,āĀ saidĀ Armstrong. āIt canāt afford to have cryptocurrency go offshore as well.ā
According to the Coinbase chief, āRegulation by enforcement has a terrible chilling effect,ā and, āweāve already seen a huge amount of crypto talent, asset issuers, and startups go offshore.ā
Armstrong didnāt offer specific examples to back his claims, and what he was referring to remains unclear.Ā That said, his reference to āoffshoreā crypto did prick the ears of a number of Twitter users.
As oneĀ Twitter userĀ questioned, āIsnāt the point of crypto to be free of regulation, free of country limits, payment systems for the world, no matter who you are or where youāre from?ā
AnotherĀ added, āCryptocurrency isnāt meant to be bound by geopolitical borders.ā
While those ideals may be widely shared in the community, the reality for centralized exchanges and Armstrong is that they have to be based somewhere, and Coinbase is headquartered in the U.S.
The politics of Coinbase
Coinbase is an increasingly political organization. AsĀ Be[In]CryptoĀ reported last week, the company has createdĀ a scoring systemĀ to estimate the crypto sentiment, both positive and negative, of various U.S. officials.
While the scoring system is limited to the U.S. for now, the company hopes to roll out their pilot scheme into other jurisdictions over time.
In an interview withĀ CNBCĀ last monthĀ Armstrong said that he envisages a future in which every company in the world is in crypto. To get there Coinbase intends to play ball with the regulators.
āWe want to be the most compliant, the most regulated, the most trusted product out there in the space,ā said Armstrong.
Despite this, it is clear that the CEO is frustrated with certain sections of the U.S. regulatory system. Without naming names, his allusion to āregulation by enforcementā suggests theĀ highly litigiousĀ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the target of his recent comments.
XRP fans unhappy too
Ripple (XRP) fans were among those to shoot back at Armstrongās most recent intervention, demanding to know when their favorite asset would return to the exchange. Trading of XRP has been suspended on Coinbase sinceĀ JanĀ 2021Ā thanks to anĀ ongoing investigationĀ by the SEC.
As XRP users see it, if ever there was a prime example of overbearing āregulation by enforcementā thenĀ RippleĀ is it.Ā