Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer of Coinbase, speaks on stage at the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit at the Sheraton New York Times Square on September 24, 2024 in New York City.
John Lamparsky | Getty Images for Concordia Summit
LONDON – Coinbase’s top policy executive expects the United States to quickly regulate the cryptocurrency industry after Donald Trump becomes president.
Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, told CNBC that he sees crypto legislation moving through Congress “soon” after the Republican president-elect — who ran on a notoriously pro-crypto policy platform — enters the White House.
Even the Republican Party Got the governance trifectaGaining control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This should further streamline the process of approving crypto laws, Shirzad suggested.
“We’ve had the most pro-crypto Congress in (history), we’ve had an extraordinarily pro-crypto president,” Shirzad told CNBC last week at an event hosted by the UK chapter of Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto. .
“I think the combination should finally allow the 50 million Americans who own crypto to have their interests and voice heard in policy.”
His comments come as two major pieces of crypto-related legislation make their way through Congress.
Sponsored by a Republican Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century ActIt aims to establish a legal framework for digital assets. That bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.
Another is the Clarity to Payment Stablecoins ActThe bill seeks to establish a regulatory regime to license issuers of stablecoins — tokens pegged to the value of fiat currencies such as the dollar. The stablecoin bill has yet to pass a House vote.
Shirzad told CNBC that he was “optimistic” that the legislation would pass, but noted that there was a “small” chance that the crypto legislation would be considered in the post-election period, which he called a “lame duck.”
Even if Congress doesn’t greenlight crypto laws this year, Shirzad expects “significant movement and the hopeful passage of both market structure legislation and stablecoin legislation” in 2025.
The lobbying power of crypto
Trump’s election victory marked a major victory for the crypto industry – but it also highlights the power of the crypto lobbying machine.
Crypto-related political action committees (PACs) — organizations that pool donations from members to fund campaigns — and other groups linked to the industry have raised more than $245 million, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Meanwhile, Coinbase-backed Stand With Crypto Alliance has developed a grading system to determine how or against crypto House and Senate candidates. According to Stand With Crypto, about 300 pro-crypto lawmakers hold seats in the House and Senate.
Last month, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler announced he would resign on January 20, the date of Trump’s inauguration. Trump had long promised to replace Gensler, who took an aggressive approach to crypto oversight during his tenure as SEC chairman.
Shirzad said he couldn’t predict who Trump’s SEC pick would be, but said the president-elect was “very good at picking people who share his vision, and he had a very comprehensive platform on crypto.”
“As long as they elect someone who is a change agent and shares their vision, I think it’s good for the US, good for society, good for people with crypto,” he added.
