Bloomberg: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Will Meet with House Democrats

On Wednesday morning, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will meet with House Democrats in a closed-door session.

The meeting, arranged with members of the New Democrat Coalition, will cover digital-asset legislation and other relevant topics such as tax regulations, national security implications, privacy concerns, and climate considerations.

According to Democratic sources, Bloomberg has reported that Armstrong has been vigorously advocating for clearer regulations and guidance on digital assets in Washington and has encouraged lawmakers to consider two bills currently under discussion.

A meeting is happening while Coinbase, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, is dealing with a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC is currently cracking down on the crypto industry under the leadership of Chair Gary Gensler, and this includes one of Coinbase’s competitors, Binance.

On June 6, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, claiming that the exchange had violated U.S. securities laws by offering tokens such as SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, and SAND as securities. Coinbase denied these allegations and, on June 29, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it “an extraordinary abuse of process.”

Last week, the stock of Coinbase saw a surge of over 24%, reaching a trading value of more than $100 for the first time in a year.

This was due to Ripple’s partial win against the SEC, which questioned the registration of XRP tokens as securities. However, Coinbase has not yet commented on this matter in response to The Block’s request.

Coinbase reveals that retail clients in four states will no longer be able to add new assets to its staking product due to ongoing legal proceedings.

Recently, ten states, such as Alabama, California, and New Jersey, have taken legal action against an exchange to halt its staking program within their jurisdictions.

This follows a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the company in June. Both the SEC and several states claim that the product is an unregistered security offering.

Coinbase claims staking is not a security, maintaining that it is a “core part of ensuring the cryptoeconomy functions for hundreds of millions of users around the globe.”