Coinbase would be more than happy to register its two dormant broker-dealers with the SEC, but the future of the crypto industry is still uncertain with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, said on Thursday that the exchange would “love to register” its broker-dealers, but no clear direction has been provided yet.
Shirzad: “We need Congress to step up.” In contrast to the SEC’s Gary Gensler, who says that the agency’s existing rules provide clear regulations for crypto platforms that issue tokens, Shirzad insists that Congress needs to get involved to create a clear regulatory framework for the industry.
Shirzad pointed out that “every crypto token is not a security,” and that the debate over whether “every crypto is a security or not is a very American one.” According to him, the U.S. approach to crypto regulation does not mirror what is going on in other countries and thus could be stifling innovation.
“There’s no other country in the world that has as fragmented a regulatory system as we do,” he said, noting that the U.S. is perhaps among the only countries in the world to use two different definitions of a security.