Coinbase Faces Criticism as Securitize Dominates Regulatory Advantage

• Coinbase faced criticism for withdrawing support, driven by competitive concerns over crypto legislation.
• Securitize, a company partnered with BlackRock, is planning a listing, managing over $4 billion tokenized assets.
• Cantor Equity Partners II’s shares were up 10% but then leveled off at 2.2%.

Citron Research has sharply criticized Coinbase for withdrawing support for crypto market structure legislation, claiming the move reflects competitive concerns rather than policy issues. The report highlighted that Coinbase may be avoiding competition that could favor emerging tokenization platforms like Securitize, positioning the firm as a potential beneficiary of clearer regulatory frameworks.

According to a post by Wu Blockchain, Citron Research criticized Coinbase for withdrawing support for crypto market structure legislation. Securitize, which has been supported by major investment firms such as BlackRock, with plans to list SPAC with Cantor Equity Partners II in H1 of 2026, has been able to securitize more than $4 billion in tokenized assets.

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Citron Frames Coinbase’s Withdrawal as Competitive Strategy

The Citron Research group led by Andrew Left suggested that it is a strategy issue rather than a concern about regulations. In its report, it described it as a struggle between Coinbase and a new breed of players supported by Wall Street. Citron pointed to Securitize’s heavyweight supporters like BlackRock.

Coinbase Ventures actually invested in Securitize during the company’s fundraising in 2018, shows the shared interests of the two entities. However, despite the relationship between the two, Citron pointed out that the company, Coinbase, is actually unwilling to support legislation that would ultimately enhance the market structure and at the same time allow its competition, Securitize, to take advantage of the benefits of the legislation.

The Senate Banking Committee postponed the scheduling of a markup of a bill relating to the structure of the cryptocurrency market, further clouding the regulatory landscape with regards to the future of tokenization in America.

On the back of Citron’s recommendation, shares of Cantor Equity Partners II jumped 10%, before correcting to a 2.2% gain. The stock of Coinbase dropped around 4% on the same trading day, with market reaction to the withdrawal of the legislation and competition between existing exchanges and the tokenization platform Securitize.

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