Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Asserts the Power of Crypto Voting Block that DC Don’t Realize

Brian Armstong, CEO of the Coinbase crypto exchange, stressed the power of crypto voting blocks in the upcoming 2024 United States elections. He believes that the politicians don’t fully realize its importance.

“I don’t think everybody in DC actually fully realizes how powerful the crypto voting block is,” he said in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance at the Goldman Sachs community and tech conference.

“And I think 2024 is an election where the voters of America are really going to hold candidates’ feet to the fire and say, what is your position on crypto?”

At a time when the crypto sector is facing a lack of proper regulations worldwide, Armstrong noted three ways in which cryptos can be regulated in the United States – through the courts, Congress and the CFTC.

He said that regulations on cryptocurrencies are “already happening in the world at large.” Countries including the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia and the UAE, have been forward thinking.

“83% of the G20 countries now have this crypto legislation either already in place or in progress.”

He further says that roughly 56 million Americans have used cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH). “It’s 5x as many as have electric vehicles just, as an example. And we’re voters,” he added.

He also noted that certain politicians in the US, including the presidential candidates that are in the running today, are talking about cryptos and their comments on the sector have been positive.

Although crypto-friendly politicians do not view the asset class in line with what the American people want, they “see it as an opportunity to challenge.”

“And so, I think this could become a hot topic in the presidential race in 2024.”

Flatcoins – Next Iteration of Stablecoins

Armstrong also spoke about what his company is working on next. The company, which recently launched base, a Layer 2 solution that’s helping blockchains scale, is currently investing a lot in its derivatives platform.

“I mentioned that internationally and then in the US as well. So, we’ll keep pushing on a few of those.”

He said that flatcoins are “new things on the horizon.” A couple of teams in Coinbase are already working on it, he confirmed, but “not building something on that realm yet.” Armstrong assured that the exchange is interested in flatcoins.

“I talked about flatcoins, which is kind of the next iteration of stablecoins that’s more maybe linked to consumer price index (CPI) or purchasing power.”

The idea of a flatcoin is to peg a stablecoin in such a way that it maintains its purchasing power for a long period of time. This was already under discussion by crypto influencers including Armstrong, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin on Twitter (X).