The Securities and Change Fee on Friday rejected a petition from Coinbase, the biggest crypto alternate within the U.S., for a separate regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency trade.
“The commission concludes that the requested rulemaking is currently unwarranted and denies the petition,” the SEC wrote in a letter addressed to Coinbase’s chief authorized officer, Paul Grewal.
Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC, cheered on the denial in a separate statement, saying that he supported the fee’s resolution as a result of, he argues, current legal guidelines and rules already apply to crypto, the SEC already addresses the trade by means of rulemaking, and it’s essential for his company to keep up management over what assets it deploys to supervise its regulatory agenda. “As I said prior to the collapse of one of the largest noncompliant crypto intermediaries that cost investors billions of dollars,” he wrote, “meaningful engagement with the SEC is always welcome.”
Spokespeople for Coinbase didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark when contacted by Fortune.
The SEC’s ruling on Coinbase’s petition comes greater than a yr after the corporate filed its request with the company, arguing that the “U.S. does not currently have a functioning market in digital asset securities due to the lack of a clear and workable regulatory regime.”
After the collapse of FTX in November 2022 and the following arrest of the alternate’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, the SEC, below the steering of Gensler, has launched into an in depth marketing campaign in opposition to crypto.
Within the first half of 2023, it focused among the largest gamers within the trade, submitting fits in opposition to Gemini, Genesis, Terraform Labs and founder Do Kwon, in addition to Justin Sun and Tron. In June, it launched salvos in opposition to two crypto heavyweights, first suing the world’s largest crypto alternate, Binance, after which submitting a lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase. The SEC’s marketing campaign has continued by means of the tip of the yr, with it most not too long ago targeting one other trade mainstay, the crypto alternate Kraken.
Most of its lawsuits in opposition to the trade’s high gamers are ongoing, even its litigation in opposition to Binance, which not too long ago agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement with the Division of Justice for breaking anti-money laundering legal guidelines, amongst different crimes.
Coinbase, which positions itself as one of many trade’s do-gooders, has cried foul on the SEC’s in depth litigation in opposition to crypto, claiming the company is “regulating through enforcement,” quite than rulemaking. Evidently, the SEC disagrees, and its lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase, which it alleges listed unregistered “crypto asset securities,” continues to wind its method by means of courtroom.
