Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, speaking on stage during the Concordia 2024 Annual Summit at the Sheraton New York Times Square on September 24, 2024 in New York City.
John Lamparsky | Getty Images for the Concordia Summit
LONDON — Coinbase’s top politician expects the United States to quickly regulate the cryptocurrency industry once Donald Trump becomes president.
Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, told CNBC that he sees crypto legislation moving through Congress “pretty quickly” after the Republican president-elect — who ran on a notoriously pro political platform — enters. -crypto – at the White House.
The Republican Party also secured a trifecta of government, taking control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. According to Shirzad, this should make the process of approving crypto laws even smoother.
“We have the most pro-crypto Congress in history, we have an extraordinarily pro-crypto president coming into office,” Shirzad told CNBC last week at an event hosted by the group’s UK division. defense backed by Coinbase, Stand With Crypto. .
“I think the combination should finally allow the 50 million Americans who own cryptocurrencies to have their interests and voices heard in politics.”
His comments come as two key crypto-related pieces of legislation pass Congress.
One of them is the Republican-sponsored Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which aims to establish 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 that aims to establish a regulatory regime to authorize issuers of stablecoins – tokens tied to the value of fiat currencies like the dollar. The stablecoin bill has not yet been voted on by the House.
Shirzad told CNBC that he was “optimistic” that the legislation would pass, but noted that there was only a “small” chance that crypto legislation would be considered in the post- so-called “lame duck” election.
Even if Congress doesn’t greenlight crypto laws this year, Shirzad expects “significant movement and hopefully passage of market structure legislation and trading legislation.” stable coins” in 2025.
The lobbying power of crypto
Trump’s election victory marked a major victory for the crypto industry, but it also highlighted the power of the crypto lobbying machine.
Crypto-related political action committees (PACs) — organizations that pool donations from their members to fund campaigns — and other industry-related groups have raised more than $245 million, data shows of the Federal Election Commission.
Meanwhile, Stand With Crypto Alliance, backed by Coinbase, developed a scoring system to determine the extent to which House and Senate candidates were for or against crypto. Nearly 300 pro-crypto lawmakers will serve in the House and Senate, according to Stand With Crypto.
Last month, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler announced he would resign on Jan. 20, the date of Trump’s inauguration. Trump had long promised to replace Gensler, who took an aggressive approach to crypto oversight when he was SEC chairman.
Shirzad said he couldn’t predict who Trump’s choice for the SEC would be, but said the president-elect is “very good at choosing people who share his vision and he has a platform very complete on cryptography.
“I think as long as he chooses someone who is an agent of change and who shares his vision, I think it will be good for the United States, good for society, good for crypto owners,” he said. he added.
