The U.S. is behind on getting its regulatory act together while the rest of the world embraces crypto, according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

The executive, in an interview on Bloomberg TV, also defended Coinbase's staking product as not being a security and reiterated that the company is prepared to defend that in court if necessary, though they prefer to work collaboratively with regulators. 

He also noted that crypto isn't going anywhere. 

"A lot of traditional financial services firms are integrating this technology," Armstrong said. "Everybody from JPMorgan, Visa and Mastercard, Franklin Templeton they have projects and teams internally working on how to integrate crypto into their services."

The CEO backed the overall concept of stablecoins, but noted that not all of them pass muster with the company, pointing to the recent delisting of Binance USD after Paxos was told by the New York Department of Financial Services to stop issuing the coin.

"My number one priority this year is the policy environment," Armstrong said. "The rest of the world has actually embraced crypto. We've seen all the major financial hubs, Singapore, Hong Kong and London, and the EU just passed comprehensive crypto legislation … We need a clear rule book so that this industry can be built here."