Many industry insiders are concerned that, if successful, Coinbase’s strategy could bog down the legislative process and delay the passage of a stablecoin bill.
Posted March 25, 2025 at 1:22 pm EST.
Lobbyists and executives for leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase are pushing Congress to pass stablecoin legislation simultaneously with a yet-to-be drafted bill on the overarching regulatory structure for most other cryptocurrency assets, according to six sources familiar with the discussions.
A stablecoin bill would cover important points such as which body would have regulatory primacy over issuers, reporting and audit requirements, and provide clarity on acceptable forms of collateral for the blockchain-issued digital dollars. Market structure legislation is a much harder task, as it would set the rules for everything from when a token is a commodity or security to how exchanges that sell the assets have to register with regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The latter legislation would clarify the rules for much more of Coinbase’s business, which sells more than 200 digital assets on its platform and offers a wide variety of additional services like staking and custody.
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“[Crypto is] a comprehensive market that needs a comprehensive solution. We think that when legislation passes into law, it’s really important that we address all of those different buckets,” says Kara Calvert, Vice President of US Policy at Coinbase. “At the end of the day, we do think it’s important to have all of this legislation pass into law at the same time or roughly the same time, because we don’t want to create gaps or holes in the market.”
But because of this added complexity, many industry participants are concerned that Coinbase is gambling with what could be a major win for the industry. “Most think it’s a bad idea,” a lobbyist critical of Coinbase’s strategy and familiar with the discourse within DC crypto policy circles said. “We should have a low hanging fruit win on stablecoins before doing harder stuff [passing a market structure bill].”
Stablecoins Are Standing on Second Base
No standalone crypto legislation has ever become law. However, a bill seeking to regulate the $233 billion stablecoin industry is much closer to breaking through than one overseeing the diverse $2.97 trillion crypto industry.
The Senate version of a stablecoin bill, called the GENIUS Act, passed the Senate Banking Committee two weeks ago, making it ready for a floor vote. An unnamed stablecoin bill in the House has not gotten quite as far, with members of Congress so far only releasing two legislation drafts. However, the respective committees in the House and Senate are working together to iron out the differences between the GENIUS Act and House drafts, according to one Congressional staffer on each committee, meaning that the House stablecoin bill could soon catch up to that in the Senate.
There is also a political sense of urgency to notch a quick win. President Donald Trump said in early March that he expected to see a stablecoin bill on his desk by August, while Executive Director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Digital Assets Bo Hines said last week that a stablecoin bill could be on the president’s desk in two months. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Arkansas Rep. French Hill, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, and Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn (GT) Thompson also held a press conference with White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks in February, promising to pass legislation quickly. At the press conference, Senator Scott, who as chair of the Senate Banking Committee dictates when a senate stablecoin bill moves to a floor vote, promised to pass key crypto legislation — most likely a stablecoin bill, he said — within the first 100 days of Trump’s administration.
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Major Questions About Market Structure
By comparison, no market structure bill has been released by either chamber of Congress so far this Congressional session. But lobbyists speaking to Unchained broadly expect the last Congress’ Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) to be used as a starting point for legislation this year, which means that the bill would move more quickly than one started from scratch. It helps matters that the bill passed out of the full House of Representatives last year, the first digital assets bill to earn such a distinction.
Calvert agrees. “We’re not starting from ground zero in market structure. FIT21 passed last year in the House with 71 Democrats and nearly all Republicans.”
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However, key details still need to be ironed out and the industry — not all of which is on the same page — is exerting pressure on Congress to make major improvements around when and how the CFTC or the SEC get jurisdiction over tokens. Two Congressional staffers told Unchained that a draft market structure bill would still take significantly more time than is needed to pass stablecoin legislation.
Why Coinbase’s Push Is Up in the Air
At this point it still appears that stablecoin legislation is on track to get to the finish line first.
One Senate staffer explained to Unchained via email last week that Senator Scott, who as Senate Banking Committee Chair would need to approve sending either piece of crypto legislation to the Senate floor, wanted “to move stablecoins first separately and then market structure work will begin soon.”
Scott’s counterpart in the House, House Financial Services Committee Chair Hill, is more flexible about the timing of each bill, focusing instead on just getting both bills across the finish line as quickly as possible. “At the end of the day, French’s goal is to get both bills together to the president and signed into law,” said Brooke Nethercott, Deputy Communications Director for the House Financial Services Committee. “President Trump has publicly said he wants stablecoins on his desk soon. Both stablecoins and market structure are a priority.”
And for now it does not look like the Trump administration is going to tip the scales in any particular way. “The White House is excited that there is so much potential for landmark legislation surrounding cryptocurrencies and the digital asset space,” a senior White House official said. “At this early stage, we are allowing the legislative process to mature and work itself out.”
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If stablecoin legislation is destined to be passed first, Calvert says that the firm will ultimately not stand in its way. “Our goal has always been to get incremental, iterative wins, and we’re excited about those wins because that’s what helped move the process forward,” she says. “I think that there are some players that may have one business line or one issue that they’re addressing [such as stablecoins], and so that creates different incentives and different equities for folks.”
Plus, it is not like Coinbase would walk away with nothing. In 2023 it took an equity stake in Circle Financial Ltd., which issues the $60 billion stablecoin USDC, and would thus benefit from clearer rules for the operation of stablecoins.
But the bigger prize for the country’s largest crypto exchange is the market structure bill, and it appears that the company will continue its lobbying efforts so that the industry does not miss the forest for the trees. “We think that it is very important that when it comes down to signing something into law, that we’re not addressing one part of the market and leaving big gaps,” says Calvert.
Senator Tim Scott did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
