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by JumpCrisscross 1174 days ago
The "really sketchy behavior" rant came to mind [1]. This isn't someone who's trying to build regulatory relationships. It's someone who wants to look like he has them. (Similar to SBF's political donations not resembling someone who wants to build political goodwill. Just someone who wants to appear as much.)

Note: I'm not arguing Armstrong had no points. But if you're going to air out your regulatory complaints ex ante and in public, you're not playing in the good-and-compliant lane.

[1] https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/14354392917153587...

2 comments

Based on the content of his Tweets, many of which are complaining about lack of communication from SEC, I assume he didn't start by airing the complaints in public.

They're also a public regulatory agency, so I'm skeptical of the premise that it's somehow wrong to communicate publicly with them. Arguably he has a duty to his shareholders to do so, or at least to let his shareholders know the status of pending or current enforcement actions against Coinbase.

> I'm skeptical of the premise that it's somehow wrong to communicate publicly with them

It's not. But it's not "working in good-faith with regulators." Coinbase has been antagonistic with the SEC from the outset.

The rant seems to be ex post, though. It is after he received notification that his company would be sued if they launched the product and after they wouldn't explain the rules after he asked.

It's not like he jumped right into it. And especially notable is that they let other exchanges operate the same feature.