Coinbase Adopts ‘International First Mentality’, Says Policy Leader

CoinbaseThe company's vice president of global policy, Tom Duff Gordon, said the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US is focusing more on international expansion.

“We want to bring a billion people into crypto, we're all about economic freedom,” Gordon said at the Zebu Live 2023 conference in London. “And it's more and more important for us to increase globally, especially where the US is.”

Last year, Coinbase announced its “Go Broad, Go Deep” strategy for global markets, recently the company registered as a cryptocurrency exchange and guardian wallet provider with the Bank of Spain and received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from The Monetary. Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Coinbase is now “taking this kind of global first thinking,” Gordon said.

In addition to previous registrations in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, Coinbase has received approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) to establish an exchange in the British island nation.

“When we look at Singapore, we see that it is a major market center, and the regulator and the central bank, MAS, are very progressive,” says Gordon, adding that there is a lot going on in the Southeast. Range.

Currently, Coinbase has about 10 markets outside of the US, with the UK, according to Gordon, being “number one”, and also includes the likes of Brazil, Canada and Australia.

Coinbase complies with US regulations

When it comes to the US, Coinbase has a responsibility to fight for regulatory transparency, Gordon said.

“In a perfect world, we would have some sort of mutual exchange process with the regulator. That's what happened in Europe. That's what happened in Singapore. That's what's happening here in the UK,” he said. Stateside, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapped Coinbase with charges that the crypto exchange sold unregistered securities.

“We strongly believe that tokens are not securities, they are actually commodities,” Gordon said. ).

We are committed to testing that regulatory transparency. We don't want to be in the position of suing our supervisor. “It's not where we want to be, but we're going to do whatever we have to do to bring transparency to this industry,” Gordon said.

The Coinbase exec also thanked his colleagues in Washington, who are trying to get support in Congress, and said the exchange is ready to take the necessary steps to achieve its goal.

“There's also an election next year, so whether we go through the regulator, or whether we go through Congress, we're committed to staying in the United States to do everything we can to drive this agenda,” Gordon said. “We know we want to work with all of them because we think America is a very important market.”

While tomorrow may not come, Gordon says he thinks “we're well on our way” to achieving that.

“There are only 300 million people in America, and there's Brian Armstrong [Coinbase CEO] It's a big vision to bring a billion people into crypto, but we can't just do it in the US, Gordon said.