Fidelity, Square And Coinbase Launch Cryptocurrency Trade Group

Four institutions with significant stakes in the success of Bitcoin launched a trade group to lobby policymakers for favorable regulation.

Fidelity, Square, Coinbase and investment firm Paradigm are joining together to form a new council to lobby policy makers to support the burgeoning Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry, according to The Wall Street Journal. The formation of this council, called the Crypto Council For Innovation, aims to ensure that policymakers understand the importance of cryptocurrency innovation and create favorable regulatory conditions for the industry to flourish.

“Crypto is at a mainstream inflection point,” said the cofounder of Paradigm and former Coinbase president Fred Ehrsam, per the Journal. “It’s in its very early stages and, much like the internet (once was), it’s very fragile while it’s in that stage… It’s challenging because policy makers want to balance risk and reward, and even people who spend time in this space would struggle to predict where this will go in the coming decade.”

While the group’s name would suggest it plans to lobby on behalf of cryptocurrencies at large, the class’s number one asset is bitcoin and the members seem particularly Bitcoin focused. Fidelity has recently filed for regulatory approval to offer a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, Square has added bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet and offers the asset for purchase through its popular Cash App and Coinbase is one of the world’s preeminent portals for retail bitcoin investment.

The council will appoint a board with representatives from each of its four initial members, and will also implement an executive team, the Journal reported. This announcement can be viewed as a major positive for the Bitcoin industry, as the four companies involved are all major players with billions of dollars of capital backing them. One can infer that additional companies will join the council and put their own money behind pro-Bitcoin lobbying to establish a favorable regulatory environment going forward.