In a development once deemed unimaginable, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed on Tuesday that finance ministers attending the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are showing increasing interest in establishing their own Strategic Bitcoin Reserves. According to Armstrong, this growing momentum appears to be inspired by the United States' consideration of a similar initiative.

ANDREW SORKIN: Take us inside the room. What was the feeling? We watched the crypto ball and everything also. There seems to be a full-on sea change in Washington about your world.

BRIAN ARMSTRONG:  It's the dawn of the new day for crypto. The energy was palpable throughout the room. You have to remember the last four years we felt we were being attacked by the administration and they tried to weaponize the lack of clarity and the rules and push back on the good actors. There were bad actors, to be fair, but they were going after the good actors. We are ready for new rules.

ANDREW SORKIN: Did you expect an executive order yesterday? To the extent of Bitcoin prices is a signal of something.

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: It's been one day. I'm not too worried.

ANDREW SORKIN: What is the executive order you are looking for?

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: Directing the agency of the U.S. government to collaborate and look to clear rules passed. That would allow capital to flow into the United States and startups to be built there. Rearticulating the bill of rights with the self-custodial wallets. That was a big issue in the past four years as well. Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Those were some of the things that can be done with executive orders, it will really take congress.

ANDREW SORKIN: Can I ask about the choke point 2.0? The question is do you believe people were being quote/unquote debanked because they owned crypto at all or debanked because they were seen at those banks as a risk of some sort to the bank?

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: I think what happened is that the regulators likely cajoled by people like Elizabeth Warren applied a soft pressure to the banks and said we have concerns about crypto. Vague statements. Risk-based statements. If you are a bank CEO, that is hard to do if the regulator comes in and says we're uncomfortable with this. You say is it illegal? No, we're uncomfortable. That soft pressure was unlawful in my view was happening.

ANDREW SORKIN: This became a commotion in the last 48 hours about crypto. What is your feeling about the Trump family involvement in crypto and President Trump put out a meme coin that was at some point worth tens of billions of dollars. Melania doing the same. There are some people inside crypto who are very critical of those decisions because they look like an enrichment of the president.

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: Look, I think anybody should be able to create a collectible or piece of artwork. There are lots of crypto commodities and hopefully securities in the future. These meme coins are something anybody should put out there. We don't recommend one asset. We look at the standards and let the market decide.

ANDREW SORKIN: The concept of a memecoin. Is that good or bad for crypto? If enough people participate and lose, because more people lose than win, and the fact that the president of the United States and his family involved in the project, does that concern you?

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: A lot of technology looks like a toy. Think about the early internet and people were putting animated gifs and things with cats. It turned out to be much more important than that. You have to be cautious. With meme coins, it is not something I'm trading all the time. I'm not particularly interested in it. It could evolve into something powerful. You have to keep an open mind. I think everybody should have the right.

REBECCA QUICK: The disappointment that's being read into the price of crypto today. It's not down all that much. People are saying there's disappointment because he didn't enact on day one. If you look at crypto's price since his election, bitcoin's price since his election, it's up almost 50%. I wonder how much of the positive news is baked into what you are seeing in the price of bitcoin? What you are seeing from here in terms of bitcoin's growth or volatility that could come with that? A lot of the positive news is already recognized from the moment he was elected?

BRIAN ARMSTRONG: We have seen an incredible growth and it hit an all-time high yesterday. We feel very good about that. I think over time, bitcoin will get in the millions price range. It is adopted by more and more customers. ETF with the inflow. If we get clear legislation in the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. If the U.S. started, the rest of the G20 would follow. I discussed with leaders from different countries around the world, they are getting more interested in it because the U.S. is looking into it.