00:00 Speaker A
Bitcoin climbs back above $93,000 to hit its highest level in two weeks. It’s been a challenging time since hitting that all-time high in October and a key underlying factor heading into the new year, the regulatory environment. Joining me now is Paul Grewall, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase. Paul, it’s great to see you. We have a lot of crypto news to cover Paul, and you’re the perfect man to talk about it. We’ll, you know, let’s start with your boss, Paul. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is at the Dealbook conference today, Paul. You saw that. He says he hopes for an upcoming Senate vote on the clarity law. Let’s start there, Paul. Remind us what the Clarity Act is and what it would mean, Paul, for Coinbase, for your company, for the industry as a whole.
00:59 Paul Grewal
Well, it’s great to be here. The Senate is considering its version of the Clarity Act. And what the Clarity Act, passed by the House earlier this year, would provide for the first time is a real market structure for crypto here in the United States. Um, earlier this year, Congress passed and the President signed a bill regarding stablecoins, which is an important first step in providing clarity and certainty under the Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets Act. But it is indeed time, it is essential that Congress finishes its work and that is what it will do when the Senate finally passes a market structure law on short notice and the President signs it.
01:46 Speaker A
Paul, you mentioned stablecoins. Brian Armstrong also spoke about this. He said banks were exploring stablecoins after Congress passed the Genius Act. I’m curious, Paul, what do you think this means for the adoption curve?
02:08 Paul Grewal
Well, there is no doubt that traditional financial institutions, including banks, now understand very well the power and potential of stablecoins to transform the financial services industry. And of course, this will mean greater adoption, greater usage and improved efficiency across the financial system. Um, we’re happy to see banks finally realizing that it’s time to innovate in how we move money over the internet and we’re excited to have them as partners in this space and we look forward to their full participation.
02:52 Speaker A
Now, Paul, it wasn’t just Brian Armstrong, your colleague from Deal Book. We also had Larry Fink. There’s another big name. He said Bitcoin, that was interesting. He said Bitcoin remains heavily influenced, Mr. Fink said, by leveraged players. And I’m just curious what you think, Paul. I mean, what risk does leverage still pose here and how does Coinbase mitigate that?
03:25 Paul Grewal
Well, Coinbase has brought access to Bitcoin to millions of Americans, dating back to the early days of crypto. Um, but it’s a market like any other market that evolves over time and it’s natural to expect that individuals who were perhaps less familiar or even less comfortable with guarding their own Bitcoin and holding it in their own wallet, would want to rely on intermediaries of all types, um, in order to fully participate and finally participate in this market. Um, we’re seeing leverage and additional intermediaries building on leverage, introducing new options for consumers to participate in the Bitcoin revolution. Uh and and of course, that will require new standards, new new requirements and new safeguards put in place. But we believe that market structural legislation is essential to facilitate this. It will define for the first time which assets are subject to U.S. securities laws and which assets are not. And we believe that concerns about leverage and more will be better addressed by Congress and the rule-writing agencies once Congress takes action.
