George Osborne Charts New Course with Coinbase's Advisory Council

George Osborne, Britain's former finance minister, has joined Coinbase Global's advisory council, the cryptocurrency company announced on Wednesday. The company is seeking to expand worldwide amidst regulatory challenges in the United States.

British Ex-Finance Minister Osborne Joins Coinbase As An Adviser

Osborne, 52, was finance minister from 2010 until his dismissal following the 2016 Brexit referendum. He eventually went on to edit a London daily and is now a partner in boutique investment firm Robey Warshaw, as well as chair of the British Museum.

"There's a huge amount of exciting innovation in finance right now. Blockchains are transforming financial markets and online transactions. Coinbase is at the frontier of these developments," Osborne said in a statement.

Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase's Chief Policy Officer, stated that the company will rely on Osborne's "insights and experiences as we grow Coinbase around the world." The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase, the world's largest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, alleging that it violates its standards, as per Reuters.

The SEC stated in June that the firm enabled the trade of at least 13 crypto tokens, including Solana, Cardano, and Polygon, which it claimed should have been registered as securities.

Coinbase has claimed that, unlike stocks and bonds, crypto-assets do not fulfill the criteria of an investment contract, a view shared by the vast majority of the crypto industry. The firm has requested a US court to dismiss the action, and the judge will hear arguments from both parties in January.

Coinbase has been expanding globally and has just obtained licenses to provide digital currency services in France, Spain, Singapore, and Bermuda. Coinbase was founded in 2012 and went public in 2021, but its valuation has dropped by more than half since then.

Coinbase Added Render To A Certain Section

Meanwhile, Coinbase, one of the main cryptocurrency exchanges, has introduced support for the digital asset Render (RNDR) in its "roadmap" section. The announcement has boosted RNDR's price by about 10%, topping $4.80. It retraced significantly in the following hours and is currently trading at roughly $4.63 (according to CoinGecko data).

It is worth mentioning that cryptocurrencies in Coinbase's "roadmap" zone must achieve certain requirements before being formally listed. Not long ago, the exchange added the Solana meme coin Bonk Inu (BONK) to its "roadmap" area, causing a significant price surge. It later publicly welcomed the token, which increased its worth even further.

The same situation occurred with another Solana-based asset, Hivemapper (HONEY). Its value increased by more than 100% at the beginning of January when Coinbase placed it in the experimental zone. Two weeks later, after the company's formal backing, it reached an all-time high of $0.33.

Photo: Gareth Milner from London, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons