SEC Files Suit against Coinbase and Binance

Yesterday June 6, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the popular crypto exchange Coinbase Inc., alleging that Coinbase is operating its crypto platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.

The SEC’s complaint dates to 2019, alleging that Coinbase has made “billions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities.” The SEC’s chief argument is that Coinbase’s failure to register resulted in investors having significantly less protection, inspection by the SEC, certain recordkeeping requirements, and conflict of interest safeguards.

To read the full statement by the SEC, please click Here.

This lawsuit against Coinbase comes one day after the SEC filed suit against another popular exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao for operating unregistered exchanges.

The price of Bitcoin dropped to $25,351.92 at its lowest on June 6th, and at the time of writing, Bitcoin is being traded at $26,368.45. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $64,899 back in April of 2021.