Coinbase (COIN.US) CEO: Crypto legislation will bring in massive amounts of capital

One of the biggest hurdles that the crypto industry needs to overcome, according to Coinbase (COIN.US) co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, is clear regulation across the entire sector. Armstrong said this would provide an equal environment for everyone, leading to significant capital inflows into the crypto space.

Regarding legislation, Armstrong said at the Goldman Communications & Technology conference: "If the legislation that the U.S. passes is similar to what has already been passed in Europe and elsewhere, I think we're going to see a lot of capital flow in."

He added: "The U.S. will eventually get this done because the other G20 countries have already gone down this path, where most of them have either passed legislation or are in the process of passing legislation, so the U.S. can't wait too long."

Crypto is also now in the spotlight for Washington politicians, as Armstrong noted that some U.S. presidential candidates have made crypto a central part of their platforms.

Armstrong said any legislation would be a good sign for the industry, just as the growth around Bitcoin ETFs has been.

Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said crypto needs to be fully commoditized and adopted by all participants to lower the future costs of the crypto space.

Haas said: "I don't think crypto is commoditized yet. I think we won't see compression of the spread until crypto is adopted by every bank in the ecosystem and every fintech, and then you'll see the commoditization, and then you'll start to see the fee compression."

Coinbase's stock has risen 98% in the past year but is down 13% year-to-date, and has fallen 19.5% in the past month.

Bitcoin fell below $57,000 on Wednesday, down 1.11% on the day.