Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pulls support for Senate’s crypto market structure bill

The Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, has made his feelings known on the Senate’s crypto market structure bill, as he takes to social media to pull his support.

“After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written,” he says.

It was on Monday (January 12) when draft legislation was finally revealed, with this to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. It was at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term when people stated they were expecting cryptocurrency to be a focus and the industry has since been waiting for legislation to exist.

After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.

There are too many issues, including:

– A defacto ban on tokenized equities
– DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial…

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 14, 2026

The recently introduced bill aims to clarify crypto tokens as securities or commodities which some would argue would provide clarity for many.

However, digging deeper into the bill, the Coinbase CEO says “there are too many issues.” He says this includes: “A defacto ban on tokenized equities, DeFi prohibitions – giving the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy, Erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC, (and) Draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition.”

Coinbase CEO is optimistic the right outcome can be achieved

In his social media post, he continues to express appreciation for “all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bipartisan outcome,” but he says this version “would be materially worse than the current status quo.”

“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.

“We’ll keep fighting for all Americans and for economic freedom. Crypto needs to be treated on a level playing field with the rest of financial services so we can build this industry in a safe and trusted way in America.”

While it’s likely not the support that was hoped for, the CEO adds another post to suggest he’s quite optimistic about the right outcome being achieved with continued effort.

Featured image: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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