Coinbase does not fear competition from Wall Street, says exchange executive
A Coinbase executive called on regulators to implement sensible crypto regulation, while announcing the Stand With Crypto event taking place in over 500 locations worldwide.
What to know:
- Coinbase says it is unconcerned by growing competition from traditional financial institutions, arguing that crypto’s grassroots community support cannot be replicated by Wall Street.
- Stand With Crypto, which Coinbase calls the world’s largest crypto-advocacy group, claims 3.7 million members who have contacted lawmakers more than 2.5 million times, even as a recent CoinDesk survey found only 1% of U.S. voters rank crypto as their top concern.
- Coinbase executives say the global Stand With Crypto events on Bitcoin Pizza Day underscore that “crypto voters” are a lasting political force and that governments must move quickly to adopt sensible, coordinated regulation.
The company recently posted a loss of $1.49 per share, compared with analyst expectations for a $0.27 profit. Also in the first week of May, Coinbase announced a 14% workforce reduction.
In a brief written interview regarding the Stand With Crypto (SWC) events on Friday, Harries said that the mobilization of people worldwide shows that the established crypto industry has a community behind it that no traditional financial institution can replicate.
“Millions of people around the world chose crypto because they believe in what it represents: open, accessible, peer-to-peer finance,” Harries said. “The people gathered today in London, Paris, New York, Sao Paulo and beyond are not here because a financial institution told them to be. They are here because they believe in this technology and want their governments to support it.”
