Why Coinbase derailed the crypto industry’s political future

Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase Global Inc., speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. | Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images. January was going to be a landmark month for the crypto industry. The Senate would start negotiating the finer details of the CLARITY Act, a major law that would finally enshrine the fundamental structure of how the crypto market could legally operate in the United States: what digital assets counted as a security versus a commodity, what regulatory responsibilities companies had to abide by, what legal protections consumers could have. The House had already passed their version months ago. The White House was ready to sign it. Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on the bill's fundamentals. And crypto, which had spent decades navigat … Read the full story at The Verge.