For the second time in 24 hours, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued a major cryptocurrency exchange. Yesterday, the regulator allegation filed against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, on allegations of manipulative trading practices, mishandling of client assets, and failure of company controls. Today, the SEC followed up a lawsuit against Nasdaq-listed exchange Coinbase, alleging that it violated securities laws.
The double sends a clear message that the SEC is targeting cryptocurrencies. The result of this could be that US investors lose access to popular crypto assets.
“We are approaching an end state if the current regulatory crackdown in the United States goes unchecked,” said Omid Malekan, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and author of the book. you are essentially banning most crypto activities in the United States.” Re-architecting Trust: The Curse of History and a Cryptocurrence for Money, Markets, and Platforms.
SEC of latest complaint double on it confirmed long ago that many crypto tokens are simply securities, as defined under applicable law in the United States. That means they are under its jurisdiction, the regulator said. Based on that interpretation, the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses Coinbase of knowingly operating an unregistered stock exchange by selling tokens, including Sol, Ada and Matic, for US investors. The SEC also accused Coinbase of violating securities laws related to bet serviceallows customers to profit from holding certain cryptocurrencies by pooling them and locking them up.
“You simply cannot ignore the rules because you don’t like them or because you like others: Consequences for the investing public,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division. is too big. in a public statement. “Coinbase is fully aware of the possibility of applying federal securities laws to its business activities, but has knowingly refused to comply with them.”
Like Binance yesterday, Coinbase blamed the regulator, claiming that the SEC failed to map out a path to compliance for crypto businesses. “The SEC’s reliance on an enforcement-only approach in the absence of clear rules for the digital asset industry is hurting competitiveness,” said Paul Grewal, the firm’s chief legal officer. economy of the United States”. He claims Coinbase has “proven a commitment to compliance,” and will continue to operate as usual while defending against claims.
This tension — over the interpretation of applicable securities laws and whether they apply to cryptocurrencies — will be at the heart of this, said Noelle Acheson, an independent crypto analyst. upcoming lawsuit. “There are a lot of games,” Acheson said.
With the filings against Coinbase and Binance, the SEC has now officially allege that seven of the top 15 The biggest cryptocurrency is stocks. Bitcoin is considered an exceptionand the SEC have not yet issued a clear ruling on Ether, but the agency “sees to be using a broad judging criteria to classify these tokens as securities,” said Molly White, author of the blog skeptical of the issue. Cryptocurrency said Web3 is getting great.
