- The SEC served a Wells Notice to Coinbase earlier this year.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the SEC is on “a lonely crusade,” with Chairman Gary Gensler taking a “more anti-crypto view.”
- Armstrong backtracked on a suggestion he made last month that the company might be forced to move its headquarters abroad.
Coinbase Inc. Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong speaks during the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 4, 2022 in Singapore.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Monday doubled down on his criticism of US Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler, but added that the exchange would not leave the US despite the regulatory uncertainty the company is facing in the country.
Coinbase has come under intense regulatory scrutiny in the US lately after a dismal year for the crypto industry that saw major companies like FTX and Terra fail, prices plummeting and investors losing billions of dollars in the process.
The SEC served Coinbase with a Wells Notice earlier this year, a letter the regulator sends to a company or firm upon the conclusion of an SEC investigation, stating that the SEC plans to pursue an enforcement action against them.
At the heart of the regulator’s dispute with Coinbase and a host of other crypto companies is a claim that it sells unregistered securities to investors. Coinbase denies this.
“The SEC is a bit of an outlier here,” Armstrong said Monday in an interview with CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Dubai. “There’s kind of a lonely crusade going on, if you will, with Gary Gensler, the chairman there, and he’s taken a more anti-crypto perspective for some reason.”
“I don’t think he’s necessarily trying to regulate the industry as much as maybe restrict it. But he’s filed some lawsuits, and I think it’s pretty unhelpful for the industry in the US to be capitalized, but it’s also an opportunity for Coinbase to get that clarity from the courts, from which we believe will really benefit the crypto industry and also the US more broadly.”
The SEC was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Armstrong also backtracked on a suggestion he made last month that the company might be forced to move its headquarters overseas.
“Coinbase will not move overseas,” Armstrong said. “We will always have a US presence … But the US is a little behind at the moment.”
“I would say that we see more well thought-out approaches in the EU, for example [European Union]they’ve actually already passed extensive crypto legislation, the UK has been incredibly welcoming, and for us there, and that was a hub where we decided to serve the UK market.
At a fintech conference in London in April, Armstrong said Coinbase could consider moving its location outside of the US if current regulatory headwinds continue. He said the US has “the potential to be a major market for crypto” but is not currently providing regulatory clarity.
If this continues, he said, Coinbase would consider options to invest more overseas, including moving from the US to other countries.
Still, Armstrong said on Monday that Coinbase plans to increase its international investments, saying it is “very interested” in the UAE as a country that could attract more investments from companies like Binance and Kraken.
Noting that this was his first visit to the UAE, Armstrong said: “I am here to learn, to listen and to meet with the relevant regulators both in Abu Dhabi and here in Dubai and to decide if this is a good place for us is to serve big region of the world.”