Coinbase CEO Armstrong Says ‘Staking’ Product Is Not a Security

  • Crypto exchange is ‘prepared’ to defend in court if needed
  • Armstrong wants to ‘work collaboratively with regulators’

Brian Armstrong

Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg
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Brian Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., reiterated that the largest US cryptocurrency exchange’s “staking” product shouldn’t be classified as a security amid a broad regulatory crackdown.

“Our staking product is not a security,” Armstrong said during a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. “Customers never turn their assets to Coinbase for instance. And we really just are providing a service that passes through those coins to help them participate in staking, which is a decentralized protocol.”