Overview
- Citron Research publicly criticized Coinbase for opposing the Senate Banking draft of the CLARITY Act and endorsed Securitize as a likely beneficiary of clearer tokenization rules.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company cannot support the bill as written, citing a de facto ban on tokenized equities, new DeFi and privacy restrictions, weaker footing for the CFTC, and limits on stablecoin rewards.
- Shares tied to the dispute diverged as Cantor Equity Partners II, the SPAC set to take Securitize public, rose following Citron’s comments while Coinbase stock fell.
- Securitize’s positioning rests on its broker-dealer and transfer-agent licenses and its record of issuing billions of dollars in tokenized assets with backing from major institutions.
- A planned Senate markup was canceled, leaving the bill’s path uncertain even as the market refocuses on which firms would gain under clarified token rules.