Crypto bills are ‘like oil for the onchain economy,’ Coinbase exec says

Coinbase executives are urging US lawmakers to view stablecoin and market structure bills as interconnected pieces of a broader crypto regulatory framework, as Congress continues to deliberate over industry rules.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Blockchain Futurist Conference on Thursday, Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal weighed in on how a market structure bill could affect US markets.

According to Aggarwal, both the market structure currently being considered in the US Senate — called CLARITY when it passed the House of Representatives — and the GENIUS stablecoin bill passed in July act “effectively like oil for the onchain economy.”

“GENIUS laid the foundation for stablecoins and stablecoin's supply to grow,” said Aggarwal. “As stablecoins supply grows, there’s now more capital available onchain that can flow into new tokenized assets that will be enabled through Clarity. So, stablecoins that are idle onchain will flow into onchain money market funds or treasuries. So it really gets the whole ecosystem flowing in a very positive way that I think is very exciting for the growth of the industry.”

Sean Aggarwal (left) speaking to Cointelegraph’s Sam Bourgi (right) at the Blockchain Futurist Conference on Thursday. Source: Cointelegraph

“GENIUS has started to unlock a tremendous amount of new enthusiasm and institutional interest as businesses and marketplaces are able to sort of understand better the rules of the road,” Scott Meadows, Coinbase’s interim head of business development, told Cointelegraph, adding:

“When you combine what Genius provides from a clarity perspective with the [...] market structure bill act, those two things end up becoming one plus one equals three because you end up with a fulsome ecosystem that provides clear rules of the road and rules of engagement for these institutions and markets to develop.”

Aggarwal’s and Meadows’ comments came the week the US Department of the Treasury considered recommendations on implementing the GENIUS Act. Coinbase submitted a letter requesting that the government limit a ban on stablecoin interest payments exclusively to issuers, while allowing it for cryptocurrency exchanges.

Related: Circle weighs in on GENIUS Act implementation: ‘Simple, strong rules’

Mr. Armstrong goes to Washington

Although policymakers are currently working to implement GENIUS, the passage of the market structure bill, known as the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in the Senate, has been slowed amid a US government shutdown and partisan divides.

Though lawmakers were reportedly still engaged in discussions over the bill as of Tuesday, it was unclear whether Republicans’ plan to have the market structure legislation passed by 2026 would come to fruition.

Amid the attempted talks to halt the shutdown, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong visited Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23 to chat with lawmakers on market structure. The CEO said at the time that there was consensus on about 90% of the legislative framework.

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