Coinbase C.L.O. Paul Grewal Addresses Concerns Around Trump's Crypto Ventures

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal addressed some of the concerns raised by US lawmakers and industry leaders around President Donald Trump's crypto ventures, and how they may affect related legislation.

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal has addressed some of the concerns raised by US lawmakers and industry leaders around President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, and how they may affect related legislation.

Speaking at the Consensus conference in Toronto on May 15, Grewal said there had been “hiccups” since the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the bipartisan bill, Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, in March. Though Grewal said there were disputes over “substantial issues that need to be addressed” in the bill, he added that Trump’s involvement in the industry was a “complicating factor.”

“The discussion around the president’s support for a certain memecoin or two and other efforts does add a certain level of challenge to the effort to get Democrats and Republicans aligned on the right way to regulate the [spot market], but I have confidence that the Senate and the House are going to sort all that out,” said the CLO.

Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren explicitly called out the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and its USD1 stablecoin in opposing the GENIUS Act. However, some of the bill’s supporters, like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who proposed an earlier version of the legislation, said they would remove language specifically targeting the president’s crypto ventures.

"This bipartisan bill is a shell game to bail out Trump's family business and bankroll a MAGA agenda, and GOP senators are lining up to vote for it."

Senator Warren is RIGHT to oppose the GENIUS Act. We need consumer protection & robust regulation of crypto, not a Trump family bailout.

— Ben Brandzel (@BenBrandzel) April 11, 2024

Whatever the terms for modifications to the bill may be, many lawmakers still expect the Senate to take up another vote in a matter of days. Punchbowl reported on May 15 that Democrats “won major victories” after receiving assurances that some of their concerns around consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and national security safeguards would be addressed.

First stablecoins, then a market structure bill?

The House of Representatives is also considering draft legislation for a digital asset market structure bill, a different iteration of the FIT21 bill that passed the chamber in May 2024. Democratic representatives have similarly pushed back on the legislation, citing “Trump’s crypto corruption.”

"I think we're gonna learn a lot from the progress we see just in the next few days on stablecoins on the appetite to really tackle all these problems on any schedule that resembles the one that was laid out not long ago by the White House and certain leaders in Congress," Grewal said.