A Crypto Awakening Among Traditional Finance Players
Coinbase is lighting up talks with legacy financial titans, according to Shan Aggarwal, the exchange’s VP of corporate and business development. His comments, dropped during a chat at Messari Mainnet with Decrypt, have got the crypto airwaves buzzing. Over the last six to nine months, Aggarwal sees these discussions between the old guard and crypto circles gaining unexpected traction, spurred by what he calls the new political dynamics in Washington. The cryptocurrency issue, once split along party lines, is now getting bipartisan support.
He emphasized how this shift could pull traditional financial players into Web3’s gravitational field, driving a wider crypto acceptance across the board. Big financial firms, the ones who’ve been sitting on the sidelines, are now thinking it might be the right moment to dive in. “Maybe now’s the time to jump into the pool,” Aggarwal said.
Painful On-Ramps Still Holding Crypto Back
While Coinbase’s connections with traditional finance are evolving, Aggarwal didn’t sugarcoat the pain points. Those painful on-ramps to get normies into the Web3 space? Still very much there. The process of onboarding newcomers to blockchain and crypto is not user-friendly. That technical leap has been holding back the masses from embracing digital currencies.
However, Aggarwal sees the tide shifting if these financial institutions step up. “Traditional finance can help Main Street users tackle the technical headaches of crypto,” he noted. With broader support from banks and smoother money flows into the crypto ecosystem, those rough edges that users face could get sanded down fast.
Congress Warming to Crypto as Super PACs Funnel Millions
Meanwhile, as the conversation heats up, U.S. lawmakers seem to be cozying up to digital assets. Aggarwal highlighted how over 70 House Democrats crossed party lines to vote for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21). This legislation could reshape the U.S. crypto regulatory landscape. Plus, earlier this year, both Democratic and Republican senators united to block an SEC policy that wasn’t friendly to banks offering crypto services.
Behind the scenes, PACs like Fairshake are cranking the crypto machine’s gears. With over $200 million in their coffers, Fairshake’s bipartisan backing is making waves in D.C. Coinbase, Ripple, and VC giant Andreessen Horowitz are lining up behind the super PAC. The flood of cash flowing into election campaigns is making digital assets less of a partisan talking point and more of a consensus-builder on Capitol Hill.
Aggarwal summed it up: “It used to be viewed that crypto was a partisan issue, but it’s not a blue issue or a red issue. It’s really a purple issue.”
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