Coinbase CEO Sees Clarity on Crypto Rules Regardless of CLARITY Act Vote

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says that regardless of the outcome of the CLARITY Act vote in the Senate on September 15, the crypto industry will still get clearer federal rules. The bill would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC, with tokens treated as securities falling under the SEC and assets like Bitcoin falling under the CFTC.

Armstrong believes that even if the bill fails to pass, the SEC and CFTC will publish their own crypto rulemaking within days. The company has been growing its business outside of crypto spot trading, which Armstrong says has been down for the past year, and now offers stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange trading alongside stablecoin and custody services.

Coinbase reported second-quarter revenue of $1.2 billion, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier, and posted a net loss of $359.5 million for the quarter. Armstrong has repeated his long-term Bitcoin price target of $400,000 by 2030 and believes that the bottom is in for Bitcoin in the current market cycle.

Armstrong also noted that Coinbase is expanding into payments made by AI agents, with more than 90% of roughly 165 million agent payments so far running through Base, the blockchain built by Coinbase, using the USDC stablecoin and the x402 payment protocol.