The US can now “quickly” introduce crypto regulation

LONDON – Coinbase’s top policy leader expects the United States to quickly regulate the cryptocurrency industry once Donald Trump becomes president.

Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, told CNBC he sees crypto legislation making its way through Congress “fairly quickly” after the Republican president-elect – who ran on a notoriously pro-crypto platform – was elected White House moved in.

The Republican Party also secured a triangle of government, gaining control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This, Shirzad suggested, should make the process of approving crypto laws even smoother.

“We have the most crypto-friendly Congress ever, we have an exceptionally crypto-friendly president coming into office,” Shirzad told CNBC last week at an event organized by the UK division of Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto.

“I think the combination should finally allow the 50 million Americans who own cryptocurrencies to have their interests and voice heard in politics.”

His comments come as two major cryptocurrency-related bills make their way through Congress.

One of them is the Republican-sponsored Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which aims to create a legal framework for digital assets. This bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.

The other is the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, a bill aimed at creating a regulatory system for licensing issuers of stablecoins – tokens pegged to the value of fiat currencies such as the dollar. The stablecoin bill has not yet passed a vote in the House of Representatives.

Shirzad told CNBC he is “optimistic” that the bill will pass, but noted that the chance of the crypto bill being considered in the so-called “lame duck” phase after the election is only “slim.” ” be.

Even if Congress doesn’t greenlight crypto legislation this year, Shirzad expects “significant movement and hopefully passage of both market structure legislation and stablecoin legislation” in 2025.

Trump’s election victory was a huge victory for the crypto industry – but it also highlighted the power of the crypto lobbying machine.

According to the Federal Election Commission, crypto-related political action committees (PACs) – organizations that pool donations from members to fund campaigns – and other groups linked to the industry raised more than $245 million.

Meanwhile, the Coinbase-backed Stand With Crypto Alliance developed a scoring system to determine how pro- or anti-crypto candidates were in the House and Senate. According to Stand With Crypto, nearly 300 pro-crypto lawmakers will take seats in the House and Senate.

Last month, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler announced he would resign on Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. Trump had long promised to replace Gensler, who took an aggressive approach to crypto regulation during his time as SEC chairman.

Shirzad said he couldn’t predict who Trump’s SEC voters would be, but said the president-elect was “very good at picking people who share his vision and he had a very broad platform on crypto.”

“I think as long as he picks someone who is a change agent and shares his vision, I think it will be good for the US, good for society, good for the people who own crypto,” he added.