Regulation is one of the biggest risks when it comes to the cryptocurrency business, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC.
“It’s right up there with cybersecurity,” Armstrong said in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin that aired Wednesday morning. “And especially now that Coinbase is a public company, we’re gonna increasingly be having scrutiny about what we’re doing and people want to understand the implications of it.”
“And so, we’re very happy to engage, just as we have been over the last 10, you know, nine years really since the start of the company, with everybody in D.C. and really lawmakers, policy folks around the world, because of course Coinbase is in many different countries now, about how we can most thoughtfully build this industry and this company,” he added.
Coinbase is set to become the first major crypto company to go public in the U.S. after it hits the markets through a direct listing later in the day. The Nasdaq gave the company a reference price of $250 per share ahead of the direct listing, which would value the cryptocurrency exchange at about $65.3 billion on a fully diluted basis.
“We’re very excited and happy to play by the rules. And basically, we just ask that, hey, we want to be treated on those level playing field with traditional financial services at the very least and not have any kind of punishment for being in the crypto space,” Armstrong said.
