Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong expects the U.S. Senate to approve the Clarity Act, arguing that broad support across the crypto industry, parts of the banking sector, and law enforcement has brought the legislation close to becoming a federal framework for digital assets.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday, Armstrong said the legislation appeared to have enough backing to move through the Senate, where lawmakers are scheduled to vote on Sept. 15.
“I think the Clarity Act is ready to be supported by the Senate,” Armstrong said, adding that people he had spoken with were broadly on board with the legislation.
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Armstrong’s confidence comes as the bill enters a critical stage. Securing the 60 votes needed in the Senate remains the central challenge, with negotiations continuing over ethics provisions and other outstanding issues.
Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium last month that reaching 60 votes would require lawmakers to address the ethics provisions as well as other unresolved elements of the legislation.
Armstrong said those negotiations were still underway but appeared “very close to a solution” ahead of the vote.
Coinbase has been one of the most prominent corporate supporters of the Clarity Act, which seeks to establish clearer lines of regulatory authority over digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Introduced in May 2025, the legislation passed the House last July. Senate approval would represent a significant step toward establishing a more defined federal regulatory framework for the U.S. crypto market.
Armstrong, however, said that the industry could still emerge with greater certainty even if the bill fails to clear the Senate.
“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.
For Coinbase, that matters because regulatory uncertainty has extended well beyond questions about how cryptocurrencies should be classified. Greater clarity could make it easier for financial institutions to participate in digital assets and give companies such as Coinbase more room to develop products beyond conventional crypto trading.
Armstrong described passage of the legislation as a “regulatory checkbox” that could help unlock institutional capital and support products such as tokenized equities in the United States.
“It’d be a big milestone,” he said.
Coinbase Looks Beyond Spot Trading
The push for regulatory clarity comes as Coinbase itself is confronting a less favorable trading environment.
Armstrong said crypto spot trading has “basically been down for the last year,” putting pressure on a business that still generates about half of Coinbase’s revenue from trading.
The company has responded by broadening its trading operations into stocks, commodities and foreign exchange, while building non-trading businesses around areas including stablecoins and institutional custody.
The diversification effort is becoming more important as Coinbase’s financial results show the cost of weaker trading activity.
The company reported second-quarter revenue of $1.2 billion in July, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier. Coinbase also recorded a net loss of $359.5 million, compared with a profit of $1.43 billion in the same quarter the previous year.
The results missed Wall Street expectations for both revenue and earnings for a third consecutive quarter.
That puts the Clarity Act in a broader business context for Coinbase. Regulatory certainty could help expand the market for products tied to tokenized securities, institutional custody and other forms of digital-asset infrastructure at a time when the company’s traditional spot-trading engine is no longer providing the same level of support.
Coinbase has also been looking outside the United States for growth. The company has established a presence in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, which Armstrong described as its Asia hub.
Those international footholds became important during periods when the U.S. regulatory environment was less permissive, Armstrong said. Coinbase is also seeking opportunities in markets where governments have been more receptive to cryptocurrency.
“We basically just try to grow when we have windows and we try to bide our time in the areas where we’re sensing hostility,” he said.
The approach reflects the uneven regulatory landscape facing crypto companies globally. For Coinbase, regulatory openness is now a factor not only in where it operates but also in where it can introduce new products and deploy capital.
The development makes the Senate vote potentially important beyond the immediate legal status of digital assets. A federal framework could reduce one of the industry’s biggest barriers to institutional participation, while giving Coinbase a clearer foundation for expanding into financial products that sit outside its traditional cryptocurrency trading business.
Still, passage of the legislation would not eliminate the company’s underlying commercial challenge. Coinbase remains heavily exposed to transaction activity, and its latest results show how quickly weaker trading conditions can flow through to revenue and earnings. Its shares have fallen nearly 23% this year, with Armstrong attributing part of the pressure on the company’s financial performance to the prolonged weakness in crypto spot trading.
The Clarity Act could then arrive at an important moment for Coinbase. The company is seeking greater regulatory certainty at the same time as it tries to reduce its dependence on the very trading activity that built its business.