Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Says New Infrastructure Bill Will Force Crypto Exchanges to Monitor Customer Transactions – Converted Organics (COIN)

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What Happened: Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN), joined a list of crypto executives opposing the broad definition of crypto brokers in the project newly proposed infrastructure law.

Calling it a “hastily designed” digital asset provision, Armstrong said the bill could have a profound negative impact on crypto and unwittingly push more innovation overseas.

“Coinbase is happy to help customers meet their tax obligations, just like the rest of the financial services industry. We’ve been doing this for years, and issuing over 1099 is a great idea, ”he said in a Twitter thread.

“But the bill defines ‘brokers’ to include anyone who ‘makes transfers of digital assets.’ This means that almost anyone in the crypto ecosystem (miners, validators, smart contracts, open source developers, etc.) could be treated as a “broker” with massive reporting obligations. “

According to the CEO of Coinbase, this makes no sense. Yet, in his view, a more concerning feature of the bill is the imposition of unprecedented reporting requirements.

2 / Coinbase is happy to help its customers meet their tax obligations, just like the rest of the financial services industry. We’ve been doing this for years, and issuing over 1099 is a great idea. https://t.co/CFagI7nnbm

– Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) August 4, 2021

Armstrong says these new reporting requirements will require crypto exchanges like Coinbase to monitor their customers’ transactions in a more intrusive way than the rest of traditional finance.

Also Read: Crypto Community Worried New Regulation Squeezes Industry In US

“All we are asking for is a level playing field with traditional finance that does not unfairly penalize cryptocurrency,” he said.

In light of the widespread criticism the bill received, the Wall Street Journal reported that Senator Rob Portman agreed on the need to clarify the provision he wrote.

Price Action: At the time of going to press, cryptocurrency markets were trading higher with the overall market cap increasing 3.77% to $ 1.64 trillion.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has gained 4.09% in the past 24 hours to trade at a price of $ 42,611. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) also traded up 2.35% over the same time frame, trading at $ 2,891 at the time of writing.

Photo: TechCrunch on Wikimedia Commons

Read more: Coinbase rolls out crypto purchases via Visa and Mastercard debit cards linked to Apple Pay

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