Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has accused major US banks of trying to sabotage President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto agenda and warned that proposed changes to a Senate market structure bill could stifle innovation, ban entire categories of digital assets and deprive Americans of the opportunity to earn returns on stablecoins.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox Business appeals Maria Bartiromo Morning with MariaArmstrong said the latest draft legislation emerging from the Senate Banking Committee represents a “giveaway to the banks” that risks overreaching the legislation and undermining recent bipartisan progress on crypto policy.
“After reviewing the Senate banking bill over the past 48 hours, Coinbase unfortunately cannot support this bill as written,” Armstrong said, citing provisions that would effectively ban tokenized securities, impose broad bans on decentralized finance (DeFi), weaken the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTCs), and eliminate stcoinswardswards.
While praising the Senate’s broader effort — including work led by Senators Tim Scott and Cynthia Lummis — Armstrong said the draft text circulated earlier this week raised “dangerous” questions that would be harder to resolve once the bill reaches the Senate floor.
Stablecoins at the center of the crypto conflict
At the center of the dispute are stablecoin rewards. Armstrong argued that recent legislation, including the GENIUS Act signed into law under President Trump, explicitly allowed stablecoin issuers to pay returns, a feature he described as critical to giving Americans better returns on their money.
“The banks are really coming and trying to undermine the president’s crypto agenda,” Armstrong said. “They are trying to protect their own profit margins, taking money out of the pockets of hard-working, average Americans and putting it in the coffers of big banks that are hitting record profits.”
Armstrong contrasted stablecoins — which, under the GENIUS Act, must be backed 100% by short-term US Treasuries — with traditional fractional reserve banking, arguing that stablecoins have less systemic risk. “There is no fractional reserve with these stablecoins,” he said. “They should not be subject to the same regulation as banks.”
Bartiromo pressed Armstrong on whether crypto platforms should face the same regulatory burdens as banks, including deposit insurance and investor protection.
Armstrong responded that such frameworks exist primarily to manage risks created by fractional reserve loans, noting that FDIC insurance only covers deposits up to $250,000.
“If customers want to choose to lend their funds, they can do so,” he said. “You don’t need a banking license to do that. What requires a banking license is lending people money without their permission.”
Armstrong also pushed back on claims that stablecoins threaten community banks, calling the argument a “red herring” made by major financial institutions. He said there is no evidence that community banks are losing deposits to stablecoins, adding that consolidation driven by big banks has posed a far greater threat since the Dodd-Frank era.
The Coinbase executive also criticized Senate language that would subordinate the CFTC to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), requiring crypto assets to pass through the SEC before potentially falling under CFTC jurisdiction.
“I can’t imagine why the Senate Ag Committee would make the CFTC a subsidiary of the SEC,” he said, pointing to the House-passed CLARITY Act, which clearly delineates oversight between digital commodities and securities.
Looking ahead, Armstrong said he remains optimistic that lawmakers can revise the Senate bill to align with President Trump’s crypto agenda. However, he issued a clear warning: “It’s better to have a bill than a bad bill.”
“If it bans entire categories of new products like tokenized stocks, I’d rather have no bill at all,” Armstrong said. “We will not cement anything into law if it hurts ordinary Americans and prohibits competition.”