The digital currency is in the crosshairs of US regulators, it does not matter if it affects a foreign company or a domestic one. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint on Tuesday against Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the US. The accusation indicates that this company acted as an unregistered broker or broker to trade securities and requires that it be “permanently restrained and ordered.”
The shares plunged 18% in the pre-market. Coinbase shares already fell 9% on Monday, after the SEC unsealed charges against rival company Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.
It is clear, according to analysts, that the federal Commission is sending signals that no exchange platform in this sector is too big to avoid legal prosecution. His double initiative before the courts is a shock, yet another, to the bitcoin business.
Coinbase’s flagship as a major exchange broker violated securities laws, the regulator stresses in its complaint, which was filed in Manhattan federal court. He qualifies that “for years the company defied regulatory structures and evaded the disclosure requirements established by those laws.”
The SEC notes that at least thirteen of the crypto assets available to Coinbase clients were deemed “crypto assets†by the regulator.
“We allege that Coinbase, despite being subject to securities market laws, unlawfully mixed and offered the functions of exchange, broker, and clearinghouse,†SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement.
In that statement it was stressed that Coinbase amassed trillions of dollars from the sale of cryptocurrency assets, but deprived investors of significant protections.
The complaint specifies that the company operated as an unregistered exchanger although it told investors upon its public offering that there were risks in its way of operating and that some of the products traded on its platform could be considered securities by regulators.
“You can’t just ignore the rules because you don’t like them or because you would prefer a different one. The consequences for investors are too great,” the statement said.
The legal actions of the SEC have gained special force and relevance after the fall of FTX last November and the criminal charges filed against its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
