Coinbase CEO Seeks ‘Win-Win’ on Market Structure Bill in Davos Charm Offensive

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong touched down in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday with an agenda to resurrect the crypto market structure bill that his company torpedoed just days ago.

Armstrong tweeted three objectives for his World Economic Forum appearance on Tuesday: discussing economic freedom with global leaders, pushing for market structure legislation, and promoting tokenization to “democratize access to capital markets.”

“The future of finance is here, and this time it’s built for the people,” Armstrong wrote.

In an accompanying video, Armstrong detailed his strategy for salvaging the legislation, calling for collaboration with traditional finance.

“We’re going to continue to work on the market structure legislation and meet with some of the bank CEOs to figure out how we can make this a win-win,” he said. “Stablecoins should be an opportunity for both banks and crypto companies as long as we’re all treated on a level playing field,” he said.

Coinbase and the crypto market structure bill

Armstrong’s Davos trip comes less than a week after Coinbase withdrew support for the much-awaited crypto market structure bill, forcing the Senate Banking Committee to cancel Thursday’s scheduled markup.

The platform pulled its backing because of a fight over stablecoin yield, with the draft bill tilting toward the banking lobby. The bill was set to ban yield on stablecoin holdings, permitting only transaction-based rewards, while bipartisan amendments threatened to further restrict crypto firms’ ability to compete with traditional deposits.

Coinbase’s outreach on the crypto market structure bill “looks constructive and offers hope to the market for positive developments,” Eva Sever, CMO at crypto exchange aggregator SwapSpace, told Decrypt. She added that, “Davos talks with banks could bridge gaps on stablecoins and yield mechanisms, where banks see deposit threats.”

Coinbase’s withdrawal last week blindsided Capitol Hill and fractured the crypto industry’s fragile coalition, with industry insiders openly questioning Coinbase’s strategy.

Armstrong appeared on Capitol Hill last Thursday in an apparent bid to repair relationships, but the damage may prove difficult to undo.

“Members of Congress don’t like getting played and don’t like having their time wasted,” one D.C. insider previously told Decrypt, adding that Armstrong “burned an enormous amount of capital and credibility.”

Luke Youngblood, founder of lending protocol Moonwell, told Decrypt the bill became “less about creating a comprehensive market structure bill for crypto to exist and flourish, and more about banks feeling threatened by the yields that users can accrue with stablecoins as opposed to a high-yield savings account.”

He praised the industry for “not backing down from this battle against powerful, entrenched interests.”

Meanwhile, Armstrong used his Davos platform to announce a partnership with Bermuda to create the “world’s first fully on-chain national economy,” leveraging Coinbase and Circle’s infrastructure for the island nation’s 73,000 residents.