A day after suing Binance, the US SEC brings a lawsuit against Coinbase
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Coinbase of running its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency on Wednesday, a day after filing a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
The SEC also accused Coinbase of not registering the offer and sale of its staking-as-a-service programme for cryptocurrency assets.
The SEC’s lawsuit alleges that Coinbase gained billions of dollars by illegally facilitating the purchase and sale of securities backed by cryptographic assets.
Gary Gensler, chair of the SEC, said, “We claim that Coinbase, despite being subject to the securities laws, commingled and illegally provided exchange, broker-dealer, and clearinghouse operations.
The lawsuit claims that Coinbase’s alleged mistakes deprive investors of important safeguards, such as policies that prevent fraud and manipulation, accurate disclosure, measures to avoid conflicts of interest, and regular SEC inspection.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed that Coinbase provided conventional exchange, broker, and clearing agency services without registering any of those activities with the Commission as required by law.
The SEC said that Coinbase has been conducting an unregistered securities offering since 2019 via its staking-as-a-service programme, which enables users to benefit from Coinbase’s work and the “proof of stake” procedures used by certain blockchains.
“While Coinbase may have made billions as a result of its well-considered choices, it did so at the price of investors by denying them the rights to safeguards they are due. According to Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, the action aims to hold Coinbase responsible for its decisions.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance, the top cryptocurrency exchange, its CEO Changpeng Zhao, BAM Trading, and BAM Management on Monday for allegedly mishandling money and deceiving authorities.
The agency accused the defendants of 13 offences in a federal complaint.
“Defendants unlawfully solicited US investors to buy, sell, and trade crypto asset securities through unregistered trading platforms available online at binance.com and binance.US,” the complaint said.
