Coinbase CEO Pushes Back on UK Stablecoin Caps as Token Profits Surge

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned Tuesday that the Financial institution of England’s proposed stablecoin caps danger costing the UK its standing as a world monetary hub, because the change concurrently battles regulators and lawmakers in Washington over guidelines that might make or break its rising income stream.

“Stablecoin guidelines within the UK are being finalized, and are susceptible to stopping the UK from being globally aggressive within the digital economic system,” Armstrong wrote Tuesday on X. “The present path of the principles does the other, and can act as an innovation blocker.”

His publish amplified a petition by Stand With Crypto UK, a commerce advocacy group seeded by Coinbase in 2023, which has gathered greater than 80,000 signatures forward of its March 3 deadline, calling on the British authorities to “drive a pro-innovation stablecoin and tokenization regulatory regime” and appoint a blockchain and crypto czar.

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Final 12 months, the Financial institution of England proposed capping particular person stablecoin holdings at $26,350 (£20,000) and enterprise holdings at $12.7 million ( £10 million), whereas requiring 40% of reserves be held in non-interest-bearing central financial institution accounts, a plan British lawmakers warned would “deter innovation, restrict adoption, and push exercise abroad.”

In the meantime, Coinbase earned $1.35 billion in stablecoin income in 2025, up from $911 million the prior 12 months, with $364 million coming in the fourth quarter alone, in a interval that included a internet lack of $667 million and complete This autumn income of $1.78 billion.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts estimate that determine may broaden anyplace from two to sevenfold underneath the U.S. GENIUS Act, the landmark laws that created America’s first federal stablecoin framework and permitted crypto corporations to supply holders a beneficiant yield on their deposits.

When requested whether or not Coinbase’s coverage positions are pushed extra by financial incentives or systemic danger issues, Clearpool COO Steven Wu instructed Decrypt the difficulty is “broader than one firm’s income,” noting the true query is “whether or not regulation focuses on managing danger correctly, somewhat than limiting scale.”

If the Bloomberg projection materializes, it indicators that stablecoins will grow to be “core monetary infrastructure, not a distinct segment crypto product,” and in that situation, exhausting caps on holdings may “restrict the UK’s skill to seize significant liquidity and institutional participation.”

The yield query has grow to be some extent of rivalry as America’s banking foyer, alarmed that interest-bearing stablecoins may pull deposits away from conventional accounts, pushed efficiently to incorporate yield restrictions within the CLARITY Act, a broader market construction invoice the Trump administration has declared a prime legislative precedence, urgent for passage by spring. 

The draft laws prolonged the ban to exchanges like Coinbase, immediately threatening its revenue-sharing settlement with Circle Web Group, by which Coinbase collects a minimize of the curiosity USDC’s reserves generate.

Final month, Armstrong pulled the corporate’s assist for the CLARITY Act simply hours earlier than a Senate Banking Committee markup, declaring the draft ‘materially worse than the present establishment’ and that he would ‘somewhat don’t have any invoice than a nasty invoice.’

Regardless of the fallout, the Trump administration has stored Coinbase on the desk, with White Home officers convening one other assembly final week with banking representatives and the Crypto Council for Innovation to handle stablecoin yield, although no settlement has but been introduced.