Posted on

Why Coinbase CEO Believes SEC’s Crypto Warning Is Harmful To The US

Coinbase Global and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have been at loggerheads for some time, and on Friday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong released a video message calling the SEC’s warning “not constructive” and “not good for America.”

The friction between Coinbase and the SEC is part of a bigger attempt by the US government to regulate the cryptocurrency sector. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has called for cryptocurrency exchanges to register with the agency, which is the source of the animosity between Coinbase and the SEC.

This warning was issued by Armstrong in response to a Wells Notice that was delivered to Coinbase a month ago. The Wells Notice stated that the staff of the SEC had formed a “preliminary determination” to suggest an enforcement action for Coinbase for violating federal securities laws.

Coinbase CEO Opens Up On SEC’s Hardline Crypto Stance

In response to the Wells notice, Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by volume, filed a letter to the SEC arguing that the regulator’s staff’s legal arguments are “flawed and untested” and that an enforcement action “would present major programmatic risks to the commission.”

While Armstrong made it clear in his video that he was ready to take on the SEC in court, Coinbase’s written response to the SEC claimed that the agency’s threat of litigation “appears intended to pressure” the organization into agreeing with the SEC’s position that all cryptoassets on the Coinbase platform are securities.

Coinbase Lawyer Says They’re Ready To Cooperate With SEC

Also featured in the video was Coinbase’s chief legal officer, who indicated the company was ready to visit the SEC at any time to create a feasible future for the cryptocurrency industry in the United States.

In the 14 days since 2023 rolled in, the SEC has taken action against crypto entities and individuals with 14 separate orders of enforcement. Crypto staking schemes offered by other exchanges including Bittrex and Kraken have also been accused of offering the sale of unregistered securities.

Coinbase has responded by saying it will oppose any regulation of its own staking scheme, which is distinct from Kraken’s.

Despite claims from the SEC staff that Coinbase’s staking services constitute investment contracts, Coinbase maintains that it does not list, clear, or affect trading in securities through its platform.

The Elusive Middle Ground

Meanwhile, even while Coinbase’s share price is still down 82% from its IPO in April 2021, it was up more than 53% since the beginning of January.

Regulatory bodies and industry participants alike are struggling to find a middle ground between fostering innovation and ensuring the safety of the cryptocurrency market, and the ongoing conflict between Coinbase and the SEC is a microcosm of this broader fight.

While the final resolution of this issue is still up in the air, it highlights the importance of maintaining open lines of communication and working together among all necessary parties to promote the success of the crypto business in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

-Featured image from Coinpedia

Posted on

Brian Armstrong Will Sell 2% Of His Coinbase Holdings To Fund Scientific Research

It’s time for Brian Armstrong to make his move. While other billionaire CEOs try to buy bankrupt crypto companies on the cheap, the Coinbase leader is focusing his sights on hard science. To announce his new endeavors Brian Armstrong visited Tim Ferriss’ podcast. In that interview, he expanded on the deep topics that the companies he’ll fund deal with. Make no mistake, though. The real announcement was that Brian Armstrong is selling Coinbase stock.

In a recent Twitter thread, the Coinbase CEO wrote, “I’m passionate about accelerating science and tech to help solve some of the biggest challenges in the world. To further this, I’m planning to sell about 2% of my Coinbase holdings over the next year to fund scientific research and companies like NewLimit + ResearchHub.” What are those companies and what do they do? Keep reading to find out.

Considering the alarming amount of crypto CEOs leaving their positions, it’s important that Brian Armstrong cleared this up. “For the avoidance of doubt, I intend to be CEO of Coinbase for a very long time and I remain super bullish on crypto and Coinbase. I’m fully dedicated to growing our business and advancing our mission, but I am also excited to contribute in a different way,” he tweeted.

What are the ideas that excite Brian Armstrong this much? Let’s find out.

Brian Armstrong ’s ResearchHub And NewLimit

So, Brian Armstrong will “fund scientific research and companies like NewLimit + ResearchHub.” What do those companies stand for, though? Well, ResearchHub is “a  tool for the open publication and discussion of scientific research. Researchhub’s users are rewarded with ResearchCoin (RSC) for publishing, reviewing, criticizing, and collaborating in the open.” Interesting, an open scientific think tank with a cryptocurrency component.

For its part, ResearchCoin is both a utility token and a governance token. “RSC gives users the ability to create bounties, tip other users, and gain voting rights within community decision making.” This is the project’s Twitter account.

On the other hand, NewLimit is “treating age-related disease to extend human healthspan” and “developing epigenetic reprogramming medicines to treat diseases with large unmet needs.” This is their Twitter account. This one is in the life extension business, but the specifics are harder to grasp. Luckily, NewLimit offers a blog post authored by Brian Armstrong himself in which he goes deep into the topic at hand:

“NewLimit will start by deeply interrogating epigenetic drivers of aging and developing products that can regenerate tissues to treat specific patient populations. We will start by using primary human cells and reference species to develop machine learning models on what chromatin features change with age, which of these changes may be causal to the aging process, and finally develop therapies that could slow, halt, or reverse this process.”

In that same blog post, we learn that the company was “co-founded by Brian Armstrong and Blake Byers with the mission of extending human healthspan.” And thus, we figure out that Coinbase CEO is the money behind both companies.

The relationship between COIN and USDT on Bittrex | Source: COIN/USDT on TradingView.com
The Tim Ferriss Interview

To launch his new endeavors in the right way, Brian Armstrong went to the popular Tim Ferriss podcast. In it, he presented the reasoning behind his investments. “I think we’re kind of in this golden age of software where fortunes are being made. But some of that wealth, even in crypto, is now being directed into hard science, hard science problems, atoms, not bits,” he said.

As to what the company actually does, Armstrong explained that they’re trying to “build a platform that tests a lot of different transcription factors with different cell types and uses machine learning to do that in a virtuous cycle.” He also explained the entrepreneurial spirit behind the whole ordeal.

“We’re trying to help humans live much longer, not just a little bit longer. But I think in any good moonshot company, you want to have intermediate milestones along the way. And so the intermediate milestones are more like, could we get a specific type of cell to be rejuvenated and be younger?”

About ResearchHub, the Coinbase CEO confirmed that it is “another company that I funded and tried to help get off the ground.” What does this one do? 

“We’re trying to make it easy for people to sort through all of the millions of papers that are published every year to what are the most impactful. We’re trying to help get things like peer review, Q&A, comments, feedback around research to be more collaborative with people.”

And those are the ideas that Brian Armstrong will dedicate the next part of his life to. While at the same time serving as Coinbase’s CEO, of course.

Featured Image: Screenshot from this video | Charts by TradingView