As it is known, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, last June, claiming that it violated securities laws.
While this case is still ongoing, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made important statements.
Speaking to Decrypt, Brian Armstrong stated that despite Coinbase's efforts to seek regulatory clarity from the SEC, the SEC is still insistent on not helping.
Criticizing the SEC at this point, Armstrong stated that Coinbase has met with the SEC 30 times in total in the last 18 months as part of its regulatory clarity efforts.
Stating that they could not get any results regarding their efforts for clarity in the meetings with the SEC, Armstrong said:
“We have met with the SEC 30 times in the last 18 months, but have received no response from the SEC.
We have not received any feedback from the SEC regarding which assets other than Bitcoin (BTC) they believe are securities and which are not.
All we got was the Wells Notice from the SEC. And then the SEC filed a lawsuit.”
Speaking about Coinbase's initiatives outside the USA, Armstrong said that what pushed Coinbase out of the USA was the regulatory environment and lack of clarity through sanctions in the USA.
Armstrong also pointed out that there is a war between the SEC and the CFTC, saying, “There is a war between the SEC and the CFTC, and this war creates regulatory challenges for all crypto firms. However, the situation is not the same in the UK. In the UK, there is a single entity for both commodities and securities.” “It's really nice to have a federal regulator because the UK doesn't have the CFTC and SEC fighting over who gets to regulate which assets.” said.
Coinbase CEO recently stated that he appreciated the pro-cryptocurrency attitude of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and said that they wanted to do more business in the UK.
*This is not investment advice.
