‘We Like Partnering With Regulators,’ Says Coinbase CFO

Updated by Ana Alexandre
In Brief
  • Alesia Haas appeared on Mad Money to discuss cryptocurrency, dogecoin and growing competition
  • Coinbase shares have fallen more than 30% since going public in April
  • Coinbase welcome competition as proof that crypto is "here to stay."
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Alesia Haas, chief financial officer at Coinbase, appeared on CNBC’s Mad Money last night to discuss a range of issues with host Jim Cramer.

Haas took over the role of CFO in April 2018, three years before Coinbase’s recent public offering, after holding the same position at Sculptor Capital Management, prior to that.

On crypto and regulations

Coinbase went public on April 14 and after initially impressing on open its shares have fallen by over 30% since. The San Francisco-based exchange opened alongside bitcoin’s (BTC) peak, and this was one of the hot topics discussed by Haas and Cramer.

With the Coinbase executive going on to say that the first coin people are interested in is bitcoin, however, she also said other crypto assets on the platform are seeing growth. Haas shared:

“The other crypto assets on the platform are seeing an increasing volume in trading assets on our platform, and so we think over time more and more users are getting engaged with more and more crypto assets and that’s what we’re excited to see.”

With this growing public interest in the crypto economy, Haas went on to say that Coinbase was open to cryptocurrency regulation, stating that it was Coinbase’s belief that regulations will improve public trust in the market.

“We like partnering with regulators. We want there to be a level playing field and we embrace regulation. We think it’s a benefit to our business and not a burden,” she said.

Upturn in popularity

Over the past year, cryptocurrency and blockchain has seen a huge upturn in popularity and mainstream acceptance. Coinbase’s own first quarter results are proof of this, with verified users on the platform growing to 56 million. The past year has also seen coins like ethereum (ETH), cardano (ADA), and dogecoin (DOGE) are repeatedly smashing their all-time highs.

However, with this growing popularity and intrigue comes greater competition. In the past few weeks, companies like Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, and more have announced moves into the crypto market. Haas is unperturbed by this, welcoming the competition and mainstream embrace of cryptocurrency as a positive.

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