Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to hold meeting with House Democrats: Bloomberg

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is scheduled to hold a closed-door meeting with House Democrats on Wednesday morning. 

The meeting, organized with lawmakers from the New Democrat Coalition, will center around digital-asset legislation and related issues, including tax regulations, national security implications, privacy concerns and climate considerations, Bloomberg reported, citing Democratic aids familiar with the matter.

Brian Armstrong has been actively pushing for clearer regulations and guidance on digital assets in Washington and has called on lawmakers to consider two bills currently in circulation.

The meeting takes place as Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, faces a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amid a broader crackdown on the crypto industry by Chair Gary Gensler, including exchange rival Binance.

The SEC sued Coinbase on June 6, alleging the crypto exchange had violated U.S. securities laws, naming several tokens it offers as securities. The tokens included SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL and SAND.

Denying the SEC’s allegations, Coinbase filed a motion to dismiss the suit on June 29, branding it “an extraordinary abuse of process.”

Coinbase stock surged more than 24% last week to trade over $100 for the first time in over a year, following Ripple’s partial victory against the SEC regarding whether sales of XRP tokens constituted unregistered securities. 

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.