Coinbase Talks With TradeFi Firms As Crypto Becomes More Bilateral

With digital assets gaining more support on both sides of the red-blue divide, Coinbase's discussions with traditional financial institutions are picking up steam, said Shan Agarwal, the exchange's vice president of corporate and business development.

In an interview with Decrypt by Mesari Mainnet, he said Coinbase's talks with major financial firms over the past six to nine months have “taken a turn” due to the increasingly bipartisan nature of the cryptocurrency issue in the US. He said that discussions could eventually bring more traditional financial players to Web3, the widespread adoption of digital assets.

“Many traditional financial institutions [for whom] They're realizing that this might not be their core business, and they're thinking… maybe now is the right time to jump into the pool,” Aggarwal told Decrypt.

He says “difficult” on-ramps are still a big pain point for getting the next wave of Web3 users into blockchain. But if traditional financial institutions transition to crypto and help Main Street users deal with crypto's technical complexities, that could pave the way for widespread adoption of digital currencies.

“Having a broader base of banking partners working with crypto companies, streamlining the way money moves into the ecosystem… probably narrows the biggest gap for consumers to use on-chain applications,” he said.

In May, more than 70 House Democrats crossed the aisle The Act for the 21st Century (known as FIT21) supports financial innovation and technology.A bill that implements a regulatory framework for digital assets in the US and earlier this year, a dozen US Democratic senators joined their Republican counterparts. Make a decision To overturn SEC policy that harms banks that offer crypto services.

Support for digital assets from Democrats and Republicans has surged as the political action committee, FairShake, distributed more than $130 million to politicians ahead of the US general election.

The super PAC's war chest of more than $200 million is the largest of any interest group this election cycle. Data The non-profit organization OpenSecrets shows. Coinbase is one of Fairshake's biggest backers, along with Ripple and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz—and the super PAC's recent House and Senate support is nearly even split between the two parties.

“Crypto used to be thought of as a partisan issue, and if we've learned anything, I think it's really bipartisan.” “It's not a blue issue or a red issue. It's actually a purple issue.”

Additional reporting by Sander Lutz

Edited by Andrew Hayward.