Edward Snowden Calls Coinbase Over-Compliance “Toxic and Embarrassing”

The United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Coinbase, is slightly affected due to the downfall of FTX in the crypto market. Recently, former NFA contractor Edward Snowden said that Coinbase is “toxic and embarrassing.”

“When new technologies come on the scene, they often go through these cycles, and the good companies can ride through,” Coinbase’s CEO stated.

Recently Bank of America has stated that it will downgrade Coinbase from “buy to neutral.” In the last 24 hours, the price of the Coinbase was reduced by 7%; currently, it is trading at $45 (USD). Goldman maintained its sell rating on Coinbase and reduced its year end price forecast to $41 (USD) from $49 (USD). Bank of America stated that it is important to separate speculative crypto trading and token prices from the underlying blockchain technology.

Edward Snowden stated that “We are seeing people exploiting the kind of ignorance that made so many people now think tapping the Facebook app on your phone, and now think crypto is Coinbase or something else equally horrible as that.”

On November 8, Coinbase CEO Brain Armstrong assured their platform users that Coinbase is a regulated institution and that the entity holds users’ funds as one-to-one, making a situation like FTX impossible. Brain stated that he was upset with the recent third quarter earnings report.

“Coinbase is a publicly traded company in the United States, and we have built our business in a way that allows us to be transparent about our track record, balance sheet strength and effectively and prudently manage risk for our customers and ourselves,” Brain stated.

Coinbase intends to expand its global market into European nations. Recently, it got permission from the Netherlands and Italy to start their crypto businesses. Brian Armstrong, recently attended the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) 2022 event. On this occasion, he stated that regulation can protect retail users of the crypto assets while enabling Web3 innovations.

Brain said the crypto regulation in the US plays a vital role in avoiding crypto asset breakdowns like FTX. Because crypto regulation in the United States is too difficult to implement, until now some of the popular regulators in the country have failed to introduce new regulations on cryptocurrency.

“Crypto markets need regulation to avoid more washouts like FTX,” Brain added further.