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...