Coinbase policy chief expects speedy approval of crypto laws following Trump’s victory
Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, speaking onstage during the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Times Square on Sep. 24, 2024 in New York City.
John Lamparski | Getty Images for Concordia Summit
LONDON — Coinbase’s top policy executive expects the United States to rapidly regulate the cryptocurrency industry once Donald Trump becomes president.
Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, told CNBC he sees crypto legislation making its way through Congress “fairly quickly” after the Republican president-elect — who ran on a notoriously pro-crypto policy platform — enters the White House.
The Republican Party also secured a governing trifecta, gaining control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This, Shirzad suggested, should make the process of approving crypto laws even smoother.
“We have the most pro-crypto Congress ever [in] history, we have an extraordinarily pro-crypto president coming into office,” Shirzad told CNBC last week at an event organized by the U.K. division of Coinbase-backed advocacy group Stand With Crypto.
“I think the combination should finally allow the 50 million Americans who own crypto to have their interests and voice heard in policy.”
His comments come as two key pieces of crypto-related legislation make their way through Congress.
One is the Republican-sponsored Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which aims to establish a legal framework for digital assets. That bill passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year.
The other is the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, a bill that seeks to establish a regulatory regime to license issuers of stablecoins — tokens that are pegged to the value of fiat currencies like the dollar. The stablecoin bill has not yet passed a House vote.
Shirzad told CNBC he’s “optimistic” the legislation will get passed, but noted there’s only a “small” chance the crypto legislation is considered in the so-called “lame duck” post-election period.
Even if Congress doesn’t give the crypto laws a green light this year, Shirzad expects “significant movement and hopefully passage of both market structure legislation and stablecoin legislation” in 2025.
Crypto’s lobbying power
Trump’s election win marked a major victory for the crypto industry — but it also highlighted the power of the crypto lobbying machine.
Crypto-related political action committees (PACs) — organizations that pool together donations from members to fund campaigns — and other groups tied to the industry raised more than $245 million, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Meanwhile, the Coinbase-backed Stand With Crypto Alliance developed a grading system to determine how for or against crypto House and Senate candidates were. Almost 300 pro-crypto lawmakers will take seats in the House and Senate, according to Stand With Crypto.
Last month, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler announced that he will step down on Jan. 20, the date of Trump’s inauguration. Trump had long promised to replace Gensler, who has taken an aggressive approach to crypto oversight in his time as SEC chair.
Shirzad said he can’t predict who Trump’s SEC pick will be, but said the president-elect is “very good in picking people who share his vision, and he had a very comprehensive platform on crypto.”
“I think as long as he picks somebody who’s a change agent and who shares his shares his vision, I think it’ll be good for the U.S., good for society, good for the people that own crypto,” he added.
Technology
Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected to run Musk’s new company town of Starbase, Texas
The SpaceX Starship sits on a launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. The test will involve the return of Starship’s Super Heavy Booster to the launch site.
Sergio Flores | Afp | Getty Images
Over the weekend, Elon Musk got his new company town along the Texas Gulf Coast. Controlling the city are three SpaceX employees, who all ran unopposed.
As NBC News reported, the election determining incorporation of the city of Starbase concluded on Saturday night, with 212 votes in favor and only six against. Just 143 votes were needed for the measure to pass.
Starbase was victorious in becoming a type C city, which in Texas applies to a previously unincorporated city, town or village of between 201 and 4,999 inhabitants. The city includes the SpaceX launch facility and company-owned land covering a 1.6 square-mile area.
The mayor is 36-year-old Bobby Peden, who has spent more than 12 years working for SpaceX and is currently vice president for Texas test and launch operations. Prior to joining the rocket maker in 2013, Peden was a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Starbase has two commissioners, both from the SpaceX employee ranks.
One is Jenna Petrzelka, 39, who was an operations engineering manager at SpaceX until July, and now identifies as a philanthropist, according to her application to be on the ballot. She’s married to Joe Petrzelka, a vice president of Starship engineering and almost 14-year veteran at SpaceX.
The other commissioner is Jordan Buss, 40, a senior director of environmental health and safety for SpaceX who joined the company in 2023.
Musk, who has assumed a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration responsible for slashing the size of the federal government, began acquiring land for SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas, about a decade ago. The first integrated Starship vehicle launched from the site, known as Starbase, in April 2023, and exploded in mid-flight.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon disclosed details about the aftermath of the explosion, including that a “3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land,” following the test flight.
State and federal regulators have fined SpaceX for violations of the Clean Water Act, and said the company had repeatedly polluted waters in the Boca Chica area. Environmental advocates and indigenous groups have also sued both the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX over the company’s flight tests and launch activity in the area.
Those groups said in legal filings that SpaceX caused harm to local habitat and endangered species due to vehicle traffic, noise, heat, explosions and fragmentation caused by the company’s construction, rocket testing and launch practices.
A SpaceX spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on X on Saturday, the account for StarbaseTX wrote, “Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space.”
WATCH: SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket
Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.
Courtesy: Hinge Health
Hinge Health on Monday updated its prospectus to include the results from its first quarter, which showed accelerating revenue growth over its fourth quarter.
The digital physical therapy startup filed to go public in March, but it has not shared a price range yet. Hinge said that revenue in its first quarter climbed 50% to $123.8 million, up from $82.7 million during the same period last year. Hinge reported $117.3 million in revenue during its fourth quarter, up 44% from the same period in 2023.
Hinge said its net income for the period was $17.1 million after taxes, up from a net loss of $26.5 million after taxes during the same period last year.
The company is attempting to go public at a time of extreme economic uncertainty and market volatility, spurred largely by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy. Several companies, including online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, have delayed their long-awaited IPOs.
Hinge’s updated prospectus signals to investors that the company is planning to forge ahead.
While the company’s revenue jumped 50%, the cost of goods sold fell slightly. That allowed Hinge to lift its gross margin to 81% from 70% a year earlier and record an operating income of $13.1 million after losing $31. 4 million in the same period a year earlier.
Hinge uses software to help patients treat acute musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain and carry out post-surgery rehabilitation remotely. Large employers cover the costs so their employees can access Hinge’s app-based virtual physical therapy, as well as its wearable electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso.
Daniel Perez, Hinge’s CEO, and Gabriel Mecklenburg, the company’s executive chairman, co-founded the company in 2014 after experiencing personal struggles with physical rehabilitation.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Q1 2025 was the company’s first profitable quarter. Hinge was profitable previously.
WATCH: IPO window likely to open in first half of 2026: PitchBook
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