North American regulators corner Coinbase. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase on Tuesday for operating as a stock exchange and a stockbroker without being registered, according to an official statement. The news has hit its price, which suffers a 16% collapse after the opening of the New York Stock Exchange and falls below 50 dollars per share.
This legal action comes one day after the SEC filed a complaint against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform, for improperly managing its users’ funds and lying to investors and regulators, among other things. In a statement, the SEC ensures that Coinbase did not lose the supply and demand of its ‘stake’ service (cryptocurrency betting) or its operations as a clearing house to guarantee exchanges between investors, credit institutions and other financial agents. . The demand has also affected the price of bitcoin, the reference digital currency, which has fallen to the barrier of $25,000.
“Since at least 2019, Coinbase has made billions of dollars illegally facilitating the buying and selling of crypto-asset securities,” the SEC maintains in the note, insisting that Coinbase mixes traditional stock market services with those of a stockbroker without having registered any of those functions. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the fact that Coinbase is not registered has deprived investors of protections, such as inspection by the SEC or safeguards for potential conflicts of interest.
“You can’t just ignore the rules because you don’t like them or because you prefer different ones: the consequences for the public investor are too great,” said the director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Gurbir Grewal, quoted in the notice. Yesterday the SEC filed a total of 13 charges against Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, accusing them of blatantly ignoring US stock market laws and earning billions of dollars in exchange for putting assets at “significant risk.” of your clients. “Zhao and the Binance entities were not only aware of the rules, but consciously chose to evade them and put their clients and investors at risk, all in an attempt to maximize their own profits,” Binance Chairman Gary said in a statement. Gensler.
