- Coinbase lists on the Nasdaq today, a watershed moment for the crypto space
- Coinbase is known to be close to regulators, one of the reasons they have been so successful
- The fact that Coinbase has gone ahead with such a risky venture shows that the incoming regulations won’t be as bad as feared
Today’s Coinbase listing on the Nasdaq has made headlines in financial newspapers around the world, being the first cryptocurrency company to enjoy such mainstream status. With the regulation of Bitcoin and the wider crypto ecosystem also the talk of the town on a continuous basis, can we infer anything from the Coinbase listing in terms of how hard or lenient any such crackdown would be?
Coinbase Relationship Aids Progress
In its piece discussing Coinbase’s listing on the Nasdaq, the Financial Times notes that Coinbase has fared better than other crypto exchanges and onramps by “hewing closely to regulators”, later citing a university professor as saying that Coinbase “dominates an oligopoly of US-based exchanges because of its close relationship to regulators”.
As the piece also points out, the Coinbase share price will be reliant to a certain extent on the Bitcoin price, which is of course famously volatile. As they also point out, the crypto market is in the main “lightly regulated”, with the promise of tougher regulations having been in the works for some time. Some, such as billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, have even suggested that regulators could go as far as outlawing Bitcoin in the U.S.
Regulation Will Not Stunt Growth
What the Coinbase Nasdaq listing tells us however is that this doomsday scenario will probably not happen. It is no coincidence that the only crypto entity that has the confidence and the wherewithal to go for and achieve a Nasdaq listing is the one that is so close to regulators. Would they really be pushing the boat out this far if there was any doubt that Bitcoin could be banned in any way in the foreseeable future?
Of course there will be regulation of Bitcoin and the crypto markets, but it’s pretty clear that Coinbase has been given enough reassurances from the authorities responsible that whatever happens won’t be detrimental to the space. And let’s not forget that it was Coinbase who helped MicroStrategy with its first bitcoin purchase back in September. The company has since poured billions into bitcoin, which in itself has given confidence to the likes of Tesla to do the same.
With Coinbase becoming instrumental in increasing institutional adoption through various means, it’s clear that whatever conversations they have had with regulators has given them the green light to go forward, all guns blazing – confidence which has manifested itself in institutional adoption.
