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Coinbase joins global financial leaders at UK Investment Summit

Tl;dr: Coinbase CEO and Co-Founder Brian Armstrong joins Britain's Global Investment Summit along with some 200 global CEOs of major financial institutions and tech firms.

By Tom Duff Gordon

International

, November 27, 2023

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In today’s fast-paced world of technological advancements, innovation is not merely a buzzword; it's the engine driving our modern economy. The rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology opens a new chapter, offering significant opportunities for further innovation and financial evolution.

Today, our CEO and Co-Founder Brian Armstrong is visiting the UK, our largest international market, to attend the exclusive Global Investment Summit, organised by the UK Government. This Summit is Prime Minister Sunak’s biannual marquee event for 200 global CEOs across many industries including major financial institutions and tech firms. The theme of this year’s summit is “Innovation for Human Progress”, and will showcase pioneering British innovations, with AI, quantum, agri-tech, clean growth, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and fashion businesses demonstrating the UK’s offering for investors. We are proud to be the only pure-play digital asset platform to receive an invitation, further demonstrating the momentum for crypto around the world

We have no doubt that this summit will further contribute to making the UK a centre for innovation. For innovation to truly thrive we must cultivate a supportive environment. This includes trusting market mechanisms, fostering competition, protecting digital property rights, incentivising creators, and ensuring open information exchange.

Over the last 18 months, the UK Government and FCA have been developing welcome regulation for our sector. And this has brought us confidence: confidence to continue to grow and invest here in the UK. 

We need regulatory frameworks that provide clarity while respecting the core benefits of cryptocurrency: enabling frictionless, global, and inclusive financial interactions. In a world where the boundaries of our digital and physical lives are being blurred with technological superclusters, regulators have to become equally nimble to provide solutions. We must also be attuned to the ways in which new technologies will interact with each other, for example AI and blockchains. 

We understand that regulating a new technology and a new industry is not always easy. It can sometimes be tempting to try to over-stretch existing rules, rather than create new rules focused on the actual risks (and sometimes lesser risks) presented by new products and services. The wrong rules for new technology can end up unnecessarily preventing trusted industry participants from providing beneficial new products to customers and, even worse, pushing customers to seek out less safe products instead.

The UK has shown its commitment to attracting talent, embracing innovation, and coming to the table with industry players to make the UK a global hub for blockchain technology, fintech and innovation. Events like today’s Global Investment Summit, prove Britain’s willingness to listen and co-create its future with industry at its core. 

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Tom Duff Gordon

About Tom Duff Gordon

Tom Duff Gordon is Vice President of International Policy at Coinbase, where he drives the company’s engagement with policymakers in global markets across the UK, Europe, APAC,  LatAm, and the MENA region. Tom previously served as Managing Director at Credit Suisse, Head of Public Policy Europe and UK, where he had responsibility across all areas of regulatory policy and government affairs and chaired the internal global Credit Suisse policy committee, which coordinates positioning on international and cross-border issues. Tom is on the Board of the International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG), the leading, cross-sectoral UK regulatory policy trade association, where he chaired one of the standing committees. For three years he co-chaired the main policy committee for the Association of Financial Markets in Europe (AFME). Tom holds an MA degree from the University of Oxford. He began his career as a consultant at Accenture.