Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Confirms White House Still Backs CLARITY Act—What This Means for Crypto Regulation
Brian Armstrong just dropped a regulatory bombshell—and the crypto world is listening. The Coinbase CEO confirmed the White House hasn't pulled support for the CLARITY Act, signaling potential stability in Washington's approach to digital assets. That's rare enough to make traders double-check their screens.
Why This Regulatory Clarity Matters
For an industry used to regulatory whiplash, consistent White House backing isn't just nice—it's revolutionary. The CLARITY Act aims to cut through the compliance fog that's left exchanges navigating by guesswork. Think of it as a regulatory GPS for an asset class that's been driving blindfolded.
Armstrong's statement bypasses the usual political noise, pointing toward genuine legislative momentum. When the CEO of America's largest publicly-traded crypto platform speaks, regulators actually lean in—sometimes.
The Washington-Crypto Detente
This isn't about cozying up to politicians. It's about building frameworks that don't treat every blockchain transaction like a potential felony. The White House holding steady suggests someone finally read the memo: crushing innovation makes worse headlines than regulating it.
Market veterans will still eye this with healthy skepticism—political winds shift faster than Bitcoin volatility. But for now, the administration seems to prefer clarity over chaos. How very un-government of them.
What Comes Next?
Watch for legislative movement, but don't hold your breath. In Washington, 'support' can mean anything from 'we'll pass it tomorrow' to 'we filed it under 'maybe later.'' Still, Armstrong's confirmation gives the industry something it desperately needs: a timeline that extends beyond the next tweetstorm.
So while Wall Street bankers still pretend not to check crypto prices, Washington's playing a longer game. The CLARITY Act could become the rare piece of legislation that actually does what its name promises—though expecting politicians to be clear about anything feels dangerously optimistic.
Eleanor Terrett exposes the current situation in the crypto ecosystem
The disagreement between the crypto exchange Coinbase and the Trump administration was first made public by Eleanor Terrett, a journalist and co-host of the Crypto In America podcast, on Friday, January 16. Following her report, the White House threatened to halt its backing for the market structure bill if talks with the exchange remained frozen.
Terrett discovered this just after Coinbase publicly announced it had withdrawn support for the CLARITY Act this week, expressing concerns that the legislation could negatively impact the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, impose restrictions on tokenized stock trading, and hinder clients from maximizing returns from stablecoins.
When the exchange was embracing this decision to halt its support on the bill, Armstrong shared a statement highlighting that, “We’d prefer no bill over a bad bill. We hope to create a better version together.” He made these remarks while outlining key industry risks connected to the recently released draft of the bill.
On the other hand, reports from reliable sources indicate that the US Senate Banking Committee decided to postpone the planned markup of the market structure bill due to uncertainties surrounding the bill raised in the crypto industry at the moment. This markup was scheduled for Thursday, January 15.
Concerning this delay, sources noted that the US Senate Banking Committee wants lawmakers and the crypto industry to secure an agreement on favorable terms.
With this argument in mind, Coinbase expressed its belief that a new bill markup will be settled sooner than expected. According to Armstrong, the rules displayed in the halted version of the bill were disastrous for clients, citing worries shared by several industry leaders in the crypto ecosystem.
The crypto community expressed mixed reactions over the CLARITY Act
As uncertainties surrounding the fate of the CLARITY Act continued to escalate, reports noted that the bill brought about mixed reactions in the crypto ecosystem.
To support this claim, these reports mentioned that some industry executives anticipated that the market structure bill WOULD be a game-changer for the Industry despite its drawbacks. However, others perceived the bill as a major obstacle in the crypto industry.
This finding ignited heated discussions among individuals. To address this controversy, sources close to the situation disclosed that the main problem is the ongoing debate over whether to permit stablecoin returns to be shared with clients, a MOVE the recently released version of the bill opposes.
In the meantime, critics raised concerns that the CLARITY Act prioritizes the interests of banks over those of the crypto Industry, therefore, acting as a barrier to progress in financial technology.
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