Brian Armstrong said Coinbase can no longer support the U.S. Senate’s crypto market structure bill as currently drafted, a move revealing growing fractures between lawmakers and the cryptocurrency industry over how digital assets should be regulated.
Armstrong said the company reviewed the Senate Banking Committee draft over the past 48 hours and concluded that the bill would be “materially worse than the status quo.”
While acknowledging the bipartisan effort behind the legislation, he said Coinbase would rather see no bill passed than support a framework it believes would damage innovation and competition in the U.S. crypto sector.
Concerns Over Tokenization, DeFi And Stablecoins
In a statement on X, Armstrong outlined several provisions he said make the bill unacceptable in its current form.
He argued that the draft would amount to a de facto ban on tokenized equities, restrict decentralized finance in ways that expand government access to user financial data, and weaken the authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by making it subordinate to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Armstrong also criticized proposed amendments that would limit rewards on stablecoins, saying such measures would advantage banks by restricting competition from crypto-native payment and yield products.
Stablecoin provisions have already emerged as one of the most contentious elements of the Senate draft, with banking groups warning that rewards could pull deposits from insured institutions, while crypto firms argue that banning them would be anti-competitive.
Despite withdrawing support, Armstrong said he remains optimistic that lawmakers can reach a better outcome through continued negotiation and engagement.
Bill Aimed To Deliver Clarity After Years Of Regulatory Uncertainty
The Senate draft is part of a broader effort to establish a statutory framework for crypto markets after years of enforcement-led regulation.
Lawmakers have sought to clarify when digital assets are considered securities or commodities and to define regulatory jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, a central issue following high-profile enforcement actions and exchange collapses.
Earlier this week, the Senate Agriculture Committee set a timetable to release its own market structure text and hold a markup later this month, signaling momentum toward formal legislative debate.
Industry executives previously told Yellow.com that clearer statutory rules could reduce legal risk and encourage institutional participation, provided the framework delivers certainty rather than new forms of ambiguity.
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