Coinbase Founder: Why Crypto Is Crucial to America's Future?
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Coinbase Founder: Why Crypto Is Crucial to America's Future?
An initiative for the American people and American policymakers.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Brian Armstrong
Translation: DAOSquare
Critics often claim that crypto has no real use beyond speculation and illicit activities. Yet more than 50 million Americans have already purchased cryptocurrency, and globally, the number exceeds 400 million people. Strong third-party data shows that illicit activity accounts for less than 0.5% of transaction volume. So what exactly are these 400 million people using it for?
Indeed, many were initially drawn to crypto by its investment potential, and speculation has driven significant adoption. But what underlying thinking fuels this interest?
In the early 1970s, the United States—like many countries before it—severed the dollar’s link to hard money such as gold. For over 50 years, a familiar pattern in human history has played out in America: because governments can “freely” print money, spending consistently exceeds revenue, eventually forcing American citizens to pay the price through high inflation and economic downturns.
Ordinary people may not understand the nuances of quantitative easing or federal budget deficits, but they do notice rising prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and for education. They increasingly sense that something is wrong with our economy. In fact, 87% of Americans believe the current financial system needs an upgrade. More than half of young Americans use today’s financial system only occasionally—or not at all.
This brings us to crypto’s first and perhaps most important use case: cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have emerged as a new form of hard money. Like gold, Bitcoin is not a national currency backed by any single government. Inflation acts as a regressive tax—hurting the poorest members of society the most—and this is true in the U.S. and in nearly every country. Bitcoin, with its fixed supply, offers a solution. Even if creating digital-native hard money were crypto’s only purpose, it would still be a world-changing technology—but this is just the beginning.
For over five years, the crypto industry has been building infrastructure to modernize our financial system and expand crypto’s utility. These use cases are no longer future promises—they are happening now. Here are some of the most popular examples:
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Digital Dollars. Although demand for U.S. dollars is high across much of the world, many people cannot open dollar-denominated bank accounts. Dollar-backed "stablecoins" change that. The digital dollar market has already surpassed $100 billion. Digital dollars like USDC are vital to America’s global competition with China, which began developing its digital yuan in 2019.
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Fast, Cheap, Global Payments. Today, we still lose about 2% on each credit card transaction, pay $30 wire transfer fees, and many U.S. transactions still take days to settle. With blockchain "Layer 2" solutions, you can now send USDC anywhere in the world in one second for about one cent. Stablecoin transaction volume backed by the U.S. dollar is approaching $9 trillion—surpassing the combined volume of Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.
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Creator Economy. NFTs have generated over $62 billion in historical sales, enabling artists to build direct relationships with their fans while cutting out expensive intermediaries. Whether music, gaming, visual art, or video, crypto helps establish digital provenance to ensure creators get paid.
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Decentralized Social Media. Still early, but decentralized social (or DeSo) ensures you own your data instead of having it controlled by big tech companies—and you can never be censored. Every post is digitally signed to prove authorship, helping combat AI-generated misinformation. Anyone can aggregate their social media content across platforms into a single front-end interface.
Crypto is not just a new asset class—it is the future of money. Today’s system is filled with intermediaries, high fees, delays, and other inefficiencies, making it inaccessible and unfair.
The future of money is more open, free, efficient, and powered by crypto. Crypto is the most important technology for modernizing the global financial system and advancing America forward. Indeed, it is critical to ensuring the dollar’s future as the world’s reserve currency and America’s position as a center of technology and finance.
Embracing cryptocurrency and establishing clear regulatory rules for crypto is one of the most patriotic things Americans can do. If you’re a crypto holder in the U.S., consider joining StandWithCrypto.org to help elect pro-crypto candidates in the upcoming elections. If you’re a policymaker, help advance clearer U.S. regulations that protect consumers and foster crypto innovation. Support bipartisan legislation such as the Payment Stablecoin Clarity Act, the 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act, and the Responsible Financial Innovation Act. Crypto needs rules that match its purpose—it’s time to act.
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