Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the U.S. crypto industry is likely to receive federal regulatory clarity regardless of whether the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act passes a key Senate procedural vote on Sept. 15. The cloture vote requires 60 senators and is not a final passage vote, but it will determine whether the bill advances to full debate before a compressed congressional calendar ahead of the November midterm elections.
Armstrong told CNBC that if the bill passes, the industry gets legislation. "Frankly, if it doesn't pass, it's also going to be a good outcome because the SEC and the CFTC have said that they're ready to publish rulemaking, and we're going to get regulatory clarity one way or another on the 15th or the day or two after," he said.
The CLARITY Act would establish a federal market structure for digital assets and divide oversight between the SEC and the CFTC. Tokens treated as securities would fall under the SEC, while decentralized digital commodities such as bitcoin would be overseen by the CFTC. Exchanges, brokers and other market participants would face federal requirements, and stablecoin provisions have become central to negotiations.
Armstrong said negotiations have produced bipartisan compromises, and Coinbase's must-have issues have been resolved. However, ethics rules for elected officials holding digital assets remain under negotiation. The White House has offered a "very strong ethics provision," while Democrats are seeking stricter requirements, including divestiture. Armstrong said the two sides "appear to be very close to a solution."
The legislation faces lobbying pressure from both sides. Stand With Crypto, a Coinbase-backed advocacy group, said supporters contacted Congress nearly 50,000 times in August, while the Independent Community Bankers of America met with senators over concerns that stablecoin provisions could compete with bank deposits. Armstrong pushed back on critics such as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, saying large payments businesses have a "competitive issue" and accusing them of "talking their own book." He pointed to Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon and Fidelity as financial institutions backing the bill.
Armstrong also highlighted agentic finance as a major growth area. He said over 90% of roughly 165 million agentic payments have occurred on Base, the blockchain created by Coinbase, using the x402 payment protocol and USDC. He said Coinbase has a leading position in the emerging market.
On bitcoin, Armstrong repeated his long-term target of $400,000 by 2030, calling it "a reasonable target," and said "the bottom is in on Bitcoin in this most recent cycle."
