"Regulation Brings Standards, and Standards Bring Adoption": Coinbase's Lory Kehoe

At the recent FMLS 10th anniversary event, I got the opportunity to speak to Lory Kehoe, the Director of EMEA Business Development at Coinbase, Founder and Advisory Board Member of Blockchain Ireland, and an all-around nice guy.

In the interview, recorded amongst the hustle and bustle of a packed Finance Magnates London Summit, Lory responded to my FTX ambush with a frank appraisal of the events of the FTX collapse and its impact on the industry in what he describes as "a really disappointing and challenging period."

Lory talked about "the need to rebuild trust", and how education will need to play its part. He then passionately discussed the "concrete examples" of the crypto activity we should be excited about and explained why he is "genuinely bullish about where this is going."

The PhD graduate from Dublin's famous Trinity College then discussed the hot topic of regulation: "people feel crypto companies are anti-regulation that and that's actually not correct". Lory talked about the need for standard global regulation "crypto is global and regulation should be global too".

With Coinbase "openly and actively working with Regulators from around the world", Lory expects and hopes for standardised regulation, saying "regulation brings standards, and standards bring adoption."

The affable Coinbase exec then talked about the impact the pandemic had on Coinbase. The crypto company, founded in 2012, was one of the first high-profile companies to go 'remote-only' during COVID-19, although as Lory discusses, the offices are still open and people do still work from them.

Coinbase saw a surge in new traders during the pandemic, and Lory discusses how to keep the new traders engaged, before teasing us with a look ahead for 2023, and what we can expect from Coinbase and beyond.