Coinbase Has No Material Exposure To FTX Or FTT: CEO Brian Armstrong

• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong clarifies that the exchange has no material exposure to FTX, FTT, or Alameda.
• FTX is now owned by Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.

The FTX-Alameda debacle has finally reached its conclusion, with Binance announcing that the exchange has successfully purchased SBF-backed FTX. However, FTX’s native token, FTT, has taken a direct hit amid such developments and has tanked 75% at the time of writing.

With FTX out of the picture, Coinbase has now become the second-leading cryptocurrency exchange after Binance. In this wake, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, took to Twitter to address the recent crypto industry events, clarifying that Coinbase has never been exposed to FTX or FTT in any way.

“There is no exposure to FTX or FTT,” says Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. 

The FTT-Alameda debacle has led Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to address crypto Twitter. Armstrong has recently issued a comprehensive Twitter thread in which he clarified that Coinbase had no material exposure to the FTT or FTX exchange.

2/ Second, Coinbase doesn’t have any material exposure to FTX or FTT (and no exposure to Alameda).

He later shared that after carefully examining the FTX event, it seems that the exchange had adopted certain risky practices and later reassured its followers that Coinbase would never engage itself in any such risky businesses that may jeopardise user interest.

3/ I think it’s important to reinforce what differentiates Coinbase in a moment like this. This event appears to be the result of risky business practices, including conflicts of interest between deeply intertwined entities, and mis-use of customer funds (lending user assets).

Armstrong later stressed the transparency factor of Coinbase and how the exchange has always strived to be “the most trusted player in the crypto space.”

“We don’t do anything with our customers’ funds unless directed to by the customer. We hold all assets dollar for dollar, and users can withdraw their money at any time. We are incorporated in the US and publicly listed in the US because we believe that transparency and trust are so important. Every investor and customer can see our publicly audited financials, which show how we hold customer funds. “We’ve never issued an exchange token.” Armstrong later shared.

Armstrong Calls For “Sensible Crypto Regulation”

The Alameda-FTX blowup has led Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to call for “sensible cryptocurrency regulation,” which prioritises consumers and user interest at all costs. He later stated that 95% of the crypto trading has shifted overseas because crypto regulation in the US is “hard to navigate.”

“To take the US as an example, 95%+ of crypto trading has developed overseas because crypto regulation in the US has been hard to navigate.” That’s bad for the US and Americans are still losing money in these overseas blowups.” Armstrong shared. 

Coinbase later stressed how a sensible regulatory infrastructure should be developed for centralised exchanges and custodians in each market to establish a level of stability and ease among consumers.

10/ We should continue to work with policy makers to create sensible regulation for centralized exchanges/custodians in each market (as we’ve been doing for some time), but then we need to see a level playing field enforced, which hasn’t happened to date.

At press time, FTX’s FTT token has crashed 73% and is trading at $4.76.

Image: Brian Armstrong/Wikipedia

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