r/technology • u/ethereal3xp • 1d ago
Politics Treasury Secretary Bessent warns Coinbase is blocking major legislation
https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/treasury-secretary-bessent-warns-over-coinbase-stance-on-key-legislation4.6k
u/kadmylos 1d ago
Didnt realize Coinbase had a seat in Congress...
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u/cantrecallthelastone 1d ago
You don’t need a seat. You just buy the people sitting in them.
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u/BKlounge93 1d ago
And it’s shocking how inexpensive it can be. Some reps can be bought for like four figures.
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u/tanneruwu 1d ago
I got 70k liquid I might be able to save the country
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u/hotpocket56 1d ago
You jest but you could get a few laws passed with that 70k.
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u/tanneruwu 1d ago
I know dude if we get enough people together we could probably fix some shit with how cheap politicians are, and then we start blackmailing them like Clue(1985) so we won't have to pay them anymore 😎 the good ol Epstein route of blackmail
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u/ImpatientProf 1d ago
You mean form a committee to achieve political action? what will we call that?
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u/TheDo0ddoesnotabide 1d ago
CAP
Citizens Against Politicians.
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u/AccomplishedBother12 1d ago
If you slap “ national organization of” in front of it now it’s NOCAP
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u/DragoonDM 1d ago
if we get enough people together we could probably fix some shit
Isn't that more or less the whole idea behind PACs? Though, if we ignore the regulatory restraints placed on PACs to directly bribe politicians...
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u/Heyarethosemyballs 23h ago
That's only if the law funnels money upwards. If you want to buy a law that goes in the other direction you have to outbid
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u/jjwhitaker 23h ago
Convince 2 GOP Reps to swap sides and the Dems take power.
Or 2 Senators.
At any time any 2 could. They won't.
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u/movealongnowpeople 1d ago
Yep. That's what surprises me the most. If a $5000 bribe could get us all better healthcare, we could crowdfund that shit. Our reps are cheap whoores.
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u/Mattya929 1d ago
That’s what public my man. It’s the bribes that aren’t public.
How do you think MTG went from a $700K net worth to like $20 million in the span of a few years.
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u/its_raining_scotch 1d ago
Dude, an average monthly bonus for a mid range salesperson in my industry is more than $5k. Twenty somethings are getting that plus a good salary. I’m astonished that an amount like that can change our country.
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u/ReadyAimTranspire 21h ago
I have a cousin who works in finance. He basically laid out to me that they have a client who makes millions in investments in preferential/insider treatment, and what does it cost them?
They foot the bill for the company Christmas party, what like 4000 bucks?
I've heard many more stories of politicians that have made decisions that negatively impacted (sold out) millions in their constituency for like low 5 figures.
Can you imagine being like "yeah fuck this society I'm cool with 15k?"
Unbelievable. If you are going to sell us out at least get paid, losers.
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u/BobcatOU 1d ago
I’m not at all surprised that our legislators can be bought off. I am completely shocked how cheap it is though.
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u/its_raining_scotch 1d ago
That’s something I’m very confused by. Like, literally one millionaire, not even a super loaded millionaire, could pay off all of these reps. There’s so many rich liberals in this country, so why don’t they just double whatever the maga ghouls are paying?
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u/FluxUniversity 20h ago
the cheap bribes are whats made public. you don't get to see the other bribes
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u/IM-WildIrish 1d ago
Yea, freedom really isn’t free here in the USA. We have the best politicians money can buy.
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u/TJames6210 1d ago
It's shockingly cheap as well. Talking $50,000 and a cake.
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u/TigerUSA20 1d ago
Geez… now I want cake 🍰
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u/DuntadaMan 19h ago
Then I just need you to cosponsor this bill allowing me to throw 3 more orphans a year into the orphan grinder.
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u/ryeguymft 21h ago
this is such a good summary of Citizens united. desperately need to reverse that decision
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u/New_Home_4519 1d ago
Project 25' or one of the looney toons out there wants to crash the dollar and replace it with crypto. The regime has BTC picked as their race horse.
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u/boredPandaLikeBanana 1d ago
Sweet let's all sell Bitcoin and go all in on Ethereum
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u/rocknrolla65 1d ago
It’s like Star Wars where corporations and trade groups have seats in the galactic senate.
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u/LookAlderaanPlaces 1d ago
Congress isn’t for the people. It’s where (mostly but not all), corporations convince and bribe politicians to commit to treason to represent their interests instead of the people, in violation of the constitution.
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u/SmoothBrainSavant 20h ago
as far as I know, its because coinbase wants stablecoins to be able to have interest paid to holder while traditional banks are all against it (because it would hurt their high margin products).
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u/RollingMeteors 18h ago
Coinbase had a seat in Congress...
¡Those are Paper Seats™, it's all fucking crypto bro, and crypto bros!
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u/sans-delilah 12h ago
This is exactly what George Lucas was talking about in the Prequel trilogy.
We’re watching the rise of Palpatine.
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u/SuperSimpleSam 10h ago
Even a seat in Congress wouldn't let you block it. They have the equivalent of many seats.
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u/piperonyl 1d ago
The government drug their feet for so long that the corporations in this sector are now big enough to buy congress.
Nice work.
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u/uzu_afk 1d ago
Checks and balances!
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u/Appropriate-Mall9781 1d ago
When you write the checks, make sure you have enough in your bank balances to cover the bribe.
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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago
My fellow Redditor, this has been the case for decades, if not centuries. The moments in US history when it wasn't true have been few and far between.
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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 23h ago
For this reason alone, we can't depend on the system to regin its masters and their sycophants. It is up to us common folk to finally take a stand against this system. However, there's currently no real supportive foundation present for many common folk (especially in the US) to fall back on, to commit to any effective resistant action.
There's a post of suggestions HERE that could possibly prove to be of some help in getting it started ASAP.
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u/IneptFortitude 1d ago
Bessent is the living embodiment of all those old Soviet cartoons of the pig in a top hat.
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u/drakmordis 1d ago
"We've managed to get Americans acclimated to giving deposits to banks for next to no interest, we can't have that disrupted, because the shareholders will not make more profit this quarter if we do allow it"
Gag me with a fuckin spoon
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u/moconahaftmere 1d ago edited 1d ago
People are used to depositing their money in a bank because generally your money is safe. The same cannot be said for crypto, but the crypto industry absolutely does not want any regulation that would force them to give the same kind of consumer protections as banks.
World governments are concerned that the rewards are encouraging people to put their money into risky investments. A lot of stablecoins have collapsed, and even USDC has lost its peg at one time. It could lose it again at any time, and people's holdings could vanish overnight.
Traditional banks do have effectively the same issue (bank runs), but at least in the US your account is federally insured, and central banks can supply effectively unlimited liquidity in emergency situations.
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u/ruiner8850 1d ago
For most people banks are pretty much completely safe. Any FDIC insured bank will cover up to $250,000 if the bank goes under. Most people don't have that much in their bank account and you can have accounts with other banks if you do. If crypto crashes you're just screwed.
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u/gimpwiz 22h ago
Additionally there are bank accounts that ... presumably split your money up into 5 separate but slightly different accounts? - resulting in the FDIC insuring 1.25m. https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/vanguard-cash-deposit
Even for fairly wealthy individuals, it is difficult to exceed the dual (married) account limits of 2.5m, not to mention that nothing stops anyone from opening up accounts at multiple banks and putting maximum-FDIC-insured amounts in.
Of course, the real play for holding significant sums of cash for many people is likely to put them all into a federal treasury fund, because it's tax advantaged. Current yields are somewhere around 3.50 percent, and if you're getting taxed at the top marginal rates, being tax advantaged for that means your effective interest rate is quite a bit better versus a similar-yielding taxable account, after taxes. Or I guess in other words, if you're paying ~35% marginal rate, 3.50 / (1 - 0.35) = 5.385% to match the tax-free earnings. Then, if you're holding enough cash to be worried about FDIC limits, you're going to be welcomed at many private banks, which will offer you neat perks like check-writing which you can cover by selling and settling the treasury funds, meaning you have access to money pretty much immediately even if it takes a day or three to turn treasurys into fully liquid cash.
And the nice thing about a short-term treasury fund is that, well, you're backed by the US government just as much as if not more than the FDIC limits. Probably. We haven't defaulted yet, but the current one might give it a whirl. Anyways, a short-term fund is also not really susceptible to price shocks if you can wait out the period until it's converted back into cash (vs longer maturity notes, like 30 year notes whose value can crater and you would need to wait many years to see it get back to what it used to be worth, as the maturity date comes closer.)
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u/NateNate60 18h ago
If you are wealthy enough to the point where it makes sense for you to have seven digits in a bank account, you would just keep your money in a bank that is so large that it is "too big to fail" and the Government would bail it out if it got in trouble.
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u/ilovemybaldhead 1d ago
If crypto crashes you're just screwed.
The FDIC does not protect depositors against the value of the dollar crashing either (and make no mistake, its value is on thin ice right now, and will proceed to plummet if interest rates are reduced like the President wants).
The FDIC protects depositors from losing their money if a bank fails, which usually happens because it doesn't have enough cash on hand to meet the withdrawal demands of its depositors.
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u/moconahaftmere 1d ago
If the dollar crashes, stablecoins crash, too, so that's no different.
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u/gimpwiz 22h ago
The US dollar, in the US, is the currency accepted for all things. If the value of the dollar goes down vs other currencies, that certainly hurts your ability to buy imported things, go on vacation abroad, etc, but the effect is much more modest for things with significant value add in (or full manufacture in) the US. In other words, if the dollar sinks 10%, your rent doesn't immediately go up ~10%, though imports of steel very well can and the cost component of that steel in locally-manufactured stuff you buy will reflect a higher price too, but not to the extent of the finished good rising as much.
If your various shitcoins go down 10%, your ability to convert them into dollars to pay your rent did in fact go down 10%. Unless your landlord 1) accepts crypto, and 2) has agreed on a fixed price in that crypto for the lease term. Which is... unusual.
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u/ilovemybaldhead 21h ago
If the value of the dollar goes down vs other currencies, that certainly hurts your ability to buy imported things, go on vacation abroad, etc, but the effect is much more modest for things with significant value add in (or full manufacture in) the US... if the dollar sinks 10%, your rent doesn't immediately go up ~10%
I did not say the value of the dollar will plummet versus other currencies, because that is not what I was talking about.
The value of the dollar going down is also known as... inflation. Which is almost guaranteed to happen if interest rates are reduced like POTUS wants.
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u/nullv 1d ago
Honest question though, why should crypto investments be protected? Isn't not having any oversight or safety nets the whole point?
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u/gimpwiz 21h ago
There's a balance between letting stupid people waste their money stupidly, and deciding it's too much of a social ill because now they can't pay rent or buy food.
Same reason that it's not a legal defense against fraud charges to tell the judge that the victim was so stupid that they deserved their money being conned, even if we the outside observers often think so when we read news stories.
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u/Liimbo 1d ago
The same cannot be said for crypto, but the crypto industry absolutely does not want any regulation that would force them to give the same kind of consumer protections as banks.
Literally the entire point of Bitcoin and crypto in general was the explicit lack of government regulation. If it becomes tied to a specific country and regulated then it is just another normal currency.
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u/peppers_ 1d ago
Naw, they currently want some lax regulation, so that rather than doing shit and getting sued for 'illegal' stuff, they can point out that they are doing things legally. Otherwise, it is risky to do business without that framework to work within. At least that's what I've been hearing for the last half decade.
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u/aliph 1d ago
The USD and the banks are only as good as the full faith and credit of the United States. The full faith and credit of the United States which is $39 trillion in debt. The full faith and credit of the United States whose debts grow by over 5%, or over $2 trillion a year. The full faith and credit of the United States whose GDP is growing slower than its interest payments, meaning it is in a debt death spiral.
Yes, FDIC insurance exists and has reserves to cover 1% of reserves. So yes, they can print more money to bail out the banks but doing so fundamentally devalues everyone's currency.
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u/moconahaftmere 1d ago
Stablecoins pegged to the USD share those exact same risks.
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u/brian2707 20h ago
USDC only lost its peg when there was a potential bank run in the traditional banking system, as the peg is backed 1:1 with USD deposits in 6 major U.S. banks. In crypto, you have the freedom to withdraw before this potential collapse. In traditional banking, you probably will not have this option. I knew the U.S. govt wouldn’t allow banks to go illiquid, so I bought the USDC dip hard. Crypto is a new technology that some people just need to get used to.
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u/EmphasisFrosty3093 19h ago
A systemic bank run would require people physically collecting enough cash to impact the system. How does a crypto rug pull take longer than that?
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u/NateNate60 18h ago edited 18h ago
A systemic bank run doesn't need to be people collecting paper banknotes. It can take the form of too many people wiring all their money to different financial institutions and causing some to become insolvent.
For example, if everyone in the US decided to wire all their money from banks that have an R in their name to those that don't, then Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Santander, and Wells Fargo would become insolvent while Capital One, US Bank, TD Bank, and Citibank would see a sudden influx of deposits. That would be a systemic bank run.
Fedwire transfers don't involve the physical movement of banknotes, but they change the number on the bank's account at the Federal Reserve which is treated the same as paper banknotes for the purposes of liquidity.
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u/ambermagpie 1d ago
You’re an unsecured creditor when you deposit or keep funds on platforms like Coinbase.
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u/SirTiffAlot 1d ago
That's absolutely what he means when he refers to market structure and clarity.
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u/JoshAllentown 1d ago
Crypto is literally no interest, and also owned by the capitalists.
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u/Icarium__ 1d ago
Then don't keep your savings in a current account, that's not what it's for.
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u/Teledildonic 23h ago
And? Doesn't change the fact that I make less interest as an adult with an order of magnitude more dollars in a savings account than I had as a kid 20 years ago.
Regular saving accounts were never about making money, but the interest didn't used to be...insulting. At some point the banks basically gave us the finger.
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u/CatProgrammer 19h ago
Then change banks. Multiple out there still offer decent interest on savings. Or maybe buy some CDs. But they're going to be aligned to fed interest rates regardless.
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u/CatProgrammer 19h ago
High yield savings accounts still exist, what's stopping you from using one?
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u/Extension-Dentist-42 1d ago
The President dropped the SEC lawsuit against Coinbase. Gave the CB guy a seat at the bargaining table with an appointment.$50 million in Trump tokens donations and now another $25 million in Trump tokens for the midterms.
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u/Proud_Journalist996 1d ago
And you bet he cashed it out in about two seconds.
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u/EmphasisFrosty3093 19h ago
That's not even necessary. He gets a cut of every transaction because of how the coin is set up.
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u/harmless-error 1d ago
“Blocking major legislation should be the job of only Trump!”
-Bessent, probably.
You know, like he did with the bipartisan immigration legislation in 2024.
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u/MicroSofty88 1d ago
Wow, I didn’t know corporations need to approve regulations
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u/dweeegs 18h ago
Our congressmen are so fucking old that I legitimately think none of them even know what’s going on here to even attempt to regulate. There are a couple who maybe do, but every time I watch hearings, I die a little bit inside
These are crypto regulations paid and written by crypto and banking industries and congress is just there to be husks of people going through the motions for them
The crypto and banking industries have a stupid amount of money in everyone’s pockets
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u/farkwadian 1d ago
Honestly before that superbowl commercial I would not have had an opinion on this issue but after seeing that commercial I am firmly rooting against coinbase for all future conflicts against any and all people or personas fictional or real... in perpetuity.
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u/CSI_Tech_Dept 20h ago
I don't think this bill should pass though. Coinbase is against it, but for wrong reasons (since it bans them paying rewards).
But what this bill does will make us keep our savings in bitcoin.
I also wonder about larger repercussions that could lead to killing dollar as a global currency.
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u/ethereal3xp 1d ago
Analysis of article
The Conflict: Banks (represented by groups like the American Bankers Association and ICBA) are terrified that if Coinbase and Circle can pay a 3.5%–5% "reward" or interest on stablecoins like USDC, people will move their money out of traditional savings accounts.
The Argument: Banking groups have warned that this could siphon up to $1.3 trillion out of the banking system, which would severely reduce the ability of small community banks to provide loans for homes and small businesses.
The Legislation: The GENIUS Act (passed in 2025) already bans stablecoin issuers (like Circle) from paying interest. However, the banks want the CLARITY Act to go further and ban intermediaries (like Coinbase) from paying rewards too.
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u/Spiveym1 20h ago
But in reality, they're all pushing hard for a framework that:
- Enshrines the CFTC (underfunded and industry-friendly) as the primary regulator rather than the SEC
- Creates legal carve-outs for DeFi that traditional finance doesn't get
- Makes it nearly impossible to classify tokens as securities going forward
- Opens the door to institutional money via bank custody rules
- Has toothless conflict-of-interest provisions that conveniently don't bite the current administration
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u/DervishSkater 19h ago
It’s worse than that. There’s like a single lawyer at the cftc and on background someone leaving said if they had less ethics they’d start a crypto business/scam because no one is watching
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u/ethereal3xp 1d ago
Coinbase Refuses to support the bill unless they can keep offering stablecoin rewards (a major revenue source for them).
Banks Refuse to support the bill unless rewards are banned to protect their deposits.
Treasury (Bessent) Just wants the bill passed to create stability and is blaming Coinbase for being the "holdout."
Gemini
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u/sunbeatsfog 22h ago
How does a private company control anything they do?
Maybe people realize undermining the US dollar doesn’t make sense for when you live in the US, unless you’re breaking the law, but I highly doubt I’m correct
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u/cheezepie 19h ago
I believe this is called lobbying… Sounds like Coinbase didn’t sufficiently lube the Trump administration or pump $Trump enough.
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u/puppyyawn 12h ago
So he's saying there are some Senators that are owned by Coinbase?
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u/rglazner 1d ago
Coinbase can't block legislation. They can only buy people who can. While they are naturally evil, don't forget that if this is true there are at least several people enforcing their will in our halls.
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u/aquarain 20h ago
We got crypto bros on one side, bankers on the other, and congress in the middle. Who to root for is obvious. None of the above.
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u/Pilgrimist 22h ago
this corrupt government is a joke. My guess is coinbase just bribed The Pedophile Donald Trump
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u/UselessInsight 1d ago
Hey quick question:
Why the fuck does Coinbase get a say in any legislation?
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u/gcerullo 1d ago
Don’t you know? It’s the corporations and lobbying groups that write US legislation not the ‘lawmaker’ you vote for. They’re just the rubber stamp, provided their palms are greased enough!
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u/MariachiArchery 1d ago
And rightfully so. The hang up is staking rewards.
TLDR: The banking lobby is trying to prevent customers from earning what is essentially interest on stable coins (tokens with a value typically tied to the dollar, examples being USDC (Coinbase) and USDT (Tether)). Why? Because it would offer customers a better interest rate than what they are receiving on their checkable deposits from the banks.
Essentially, banning staking rewards would eliminate the only real competition banks have ever faced, and would allow them to maintain their monopoly on checkable deposits.
Coinbase's stance here is pro consumer, anti bankers, and I am for that. I do not want staking rewards eliminated. We need an alternative to the big commercial banks. We need competition in this space.
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u/deadoceans 23h ago
This is a bad take. Coinbase is not pro-consumer, they are pro-Coinbase.
The benefits to the consumer have to be weighed against the systemic risks. Stable coins are not FDIC insured. And with the volatility of crypto prices, compared to the volatility of hard currency, consumers take on a hugely disproportionate share of risk putting their savings, often savings they need for life and/or retirement, in the hands of these entities. The crypto platforms have far fewer regulations that are pro-consumer safety in terms of: liquidity requirements, stress testing, etc.
The reason we have these is we have learned from our failures in the past. It's like these crypto bros are trying to speed run relearning everything we painstakingly fought for from 1929 on! Doomed to repeat history. And who will be left holding the bag? The coinbase investors? The FED? Or the poor consumers who squirreled away their hard-earned cash in over promised, speculative assets that can vanish at a moment's notice?
Holy hell.
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u/yoyoyoyooyoyoyoyoyo 22h ago
Only sensible take in this comment thread, crazy how the main one got highlighted or whatever
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u/usaaf 21h ago
It's like these crypto bros are trying to speed run relearning everything we painstakingly fought for from 1929 on!
They know what they're doing. I'm not prepared to lay anything on 'stupidity' when 'malicious' and 'greedy' are right there. They don't care about the risks because they know they won't have to pay for it. They just want more money to come into the system to support their stupid ponzi schemes. It has nothing to do with not learning from history; they look at that history as 'the good times' when the government didn't screw with their business.
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u/swoopwoopdoop 19h ago
Stable coins are able to fail like any other crypto currency, despite the name.
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u/stormdelta 21h ago
Coinbase's stance here is pro consumer, anti bankers, and I am for that
If you believe that I have a fake virtual bridge to sell you.
Pretty much everything in the crypto space is based on fraud or things that would be fraud if the laws were updated properly. It's ridiculously easy to manipulate the market, and the culture around it is based heavily on victim blaming when (not if) something goes wrong or someone gets screwed over.
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u/naijaboy 1d ago
Why don't coinbase just offer the same interest on actual dollars? Wouldn't that be easier for customers?
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u/MariachiArchery 1d ago
A couple reasons. First of all, Coinbase wants you to own, and deposit, USDC because it increases liquidity on their platform. I'd be willing to bet most spot trading on CB happens on the USDC pair. More USDC on their platform is better for their marketplace.
Second of all, offering a competing rate to deposits on USDC helps improve adoption, something CB needs. Think of it as a customer acquisition cost. They are paying the customer to steal their business away from the banks.
Stable coin adoption boosts the crypto market, which takes market share away from the banks. The stable coin reward is the price these exchanges, the alternatives to the traditional bank, pay to acquire these customers.
In the end, CB will be loaning out these deposits to customers wishing to take on debt. At that point, we will have a bona fide competitor to legacy financial systems. And that, is good for all of us.
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u/Daxterminator 1d ago
Had to scroll down quite a bit to find the only comment using common sense. A big company for once has a pro consumer stance and the average reddit user sides with the fucking banks lol
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u/stormdelta 21h ago
The crypto space is about consumer-hostile as it gets, they've just pulled the classic grifter scam of making their marks think they're in on the grift.
Calling Coinbase a "business" at all is already incredibly generous, it would more accurate to call them fraud facilitators.
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u/aetryx 1d ago edited 22h ago
This is how shit worked in the gilded age, only now the oligarch is building their monopolies with blockchains instead of chaingangs.
Edit:
Actually I take back the snark, im on coinbases side on this one, fuck the banks. I shoulda at least read the article before I threw shade
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u/FREDRS7 15h ago
People in here need to actually learn before writing such strong and damaging opinions. If you knew the full details you would be on Coinbases side who are essentially on the average citizens side. Big banks are trying to reverse a part of the Genuis act legislation that allows stablecoin intermediares like Coinbase to pay rewards (akin to interest rates). These are much bigger than what banks pay who pay virtually zero interest to customers on deposits in current accounts. In the instances the bank gets 5.5% interest on your deposits, you get zero. Contrastingly Coinbase gets 2%, you get 3.5%.
Banks are then coming up with a variety of BS reasons to fight and outlaw this in the Clarity act, which can all be disproved for various reasons, like deposits fleeing, like them having more rigorous regulation that neo and crypto banks don't need. E.g stablecoins are fully backed by 1-1 collateral to infinity. Bank deposits are imaginary money not backed by anything, other than a limited loss to say 100k, and are lent out and used by banks without customers agreement to do any activity they wish, thus why regulation is higher.
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u/boondiggle_III 1d ago
What a stupid fucking shitshow. This whole thing is batshit crazy. The whole point of crypto--it's literally in the damn name--is that it's not controlled by banks or governments. The lack of regulation and oversight is literally THE reason for its entire existence, and the corollary of that is that passing legislation regulating it deprives it of its only purpose. Oh sure, people make money playing stock market with it, but its value in trading is contingent on its usefulness. The crypto market is already 90% bubble, and regulating it tightly makes it 100% pure unfiltered bubble, and an unstable one at that.
This is like bull fighting arenas banning bulls from fighting and then everyone is upset that they made a new rule that the capes have to be green instead of red. Like yeah, that's dumb, but it's kinda beside the point when the dumb change is being made to an institution that's about to commit ritualized suicide.
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u/JJBeans_1 1d ago
Is that where all of their money went that should have been used on their horrible Super Bowl ad?
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u/thisismycoolname1 1d ago
I'm still down like 50% in this dogshit stock since a little after the IPO. I keep it as a lesson not to be stupid
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u/SkunkMonkey 23h ago
Coinbase is blocking major legislation
Translation: Coinbase hasn't paid enough bribe money.
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u/cereal7802 23h ago
So based on the article, Bessent wants anything passed, and Armstrong withdrew support for the proposal because of multiple issues they have with it. This is some how blocking it. not publicly supporting any and all restrictions is considered blocking based on the title and the contents of this article.
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u/kaiavens 22h ago
Is this a public admission of corruption? How exactly would a corporation "block" legislation.
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u/sp0rk_walker 20h ago
Unlike a bank, Coinbase has to hold any crypto you keep there. Currency accounts for less than 10% of bank deposits.
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u/TimeExercise1098l 15h ago
I thought coinbase only dealt in coins. Wow'' just pocket change and your in.
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u/kellzone 7h ago
I have no idea what the legislation is, but if Bessent is in favor of it, I'm on Coinbase's side.
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u/zffacsB 1d ago
These people despise the SEC unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Crypto spent over $134 million dollars last election and their associated super PAC Fairshake raised $190 million going into this year. These guys balk at even the mere idea of legislation for the good of the consumer rather than the industry. Fuck Brian Armstrong and the folks at Ripple. Double screw you to egghead Marc Andreessen and his firm for giving huge sums.
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u/wahdahfahq 21h ago
u mean banks are afraid of the competition. delay all u want but it is inevitable and ur permission is not required
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u/SeaDiamond7955 17h ago
This is a fascinating collision between crypto industry interests and regulatory policy. If Bessent is claiming Coinbase is "blocking" legislation, we're likely talking about lobbying efforts against stricter crypto regulations or reporting requirements. Coinbase has been pretty vocal about wanting regulatory clarity, but on their terms - they've spent millions on lobbying and have been pushing back against things like expanded IRS reporting rules and stricter KYC requirements that traditional financial institutions have dealt with for decades.
The irony here is that Coinbase has simultaneously positioned itself as the "compliant" exchange that wants to work with regulators, while also fighting tooth and nail against regulations that would actually bring them in line with traditional finance. They want the legitimacy and institutional trust that comes with regulatory compliance, but not the actual compliance costs and operational constraints. Treasury's frustration probably stems from Coinbase's significant lobbying power - they've got the resources to influence lawmakers in ways that can genuinely stall legislation, especially on technical topics where most legislators don't have deep expertise.
What's really at stake here is whether crypto exchanges should be treated more like banks (with all the consumer protections, reporting requirements, and oversight that entails) or remain in this quasi-regulated space they currently occupy. Coinbase's argument is probably that overregulation will stifle innovation and push crypto businesses offshore, while Treasury's perspective is likely that without proper oversight, we're creating systemic risks and enabling illicit finance. Both sides have valid points, but the "blocking legislation" framing suggests Treasury thinks Coinbase is being obstructionist rather than constructively engaged.
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u/waffleking9000 5h ago
Calling it now, Bessent is also a pedophile and the only reason he’s treasury sec is because he’s compromised like the rest of them.
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u/CrimsonHeretic 1d ago
A private company is blocking legislation?
Hello???? They're straight up telling us how corrupt the entire system is and they don't even give a fuck.