What is happening? SEC sues Coinbase, just days after it launched the legal high-voltage signal on Binance: “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S. crypto asset trading platform, for allegedly violating securities laws. The SEC claims that Coinbase has been operating as an unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency since 2019, and has allowed its users to trade 13 crypto tokens that were actually unregistered securities.”
Hodlers, the government is making its point. Let’s see how you guys react. It is an illusion to think you can be on this earth and have another god!
I have maintained this point for years: the government does not need to pursue the decentralized coins (debatable since the mining is under the control of few lords), all it needs is to disconnect the exchanges, and once that is done, everything will fade for institutional investors, even if small peer-to-peer marginal hodlers continue to believe. Shine ya eyes!
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase for violating securities laws on Tuesday in New York federal court, just a day after charging crypto rival Binance. The SEC alleges that Coinbase, the biggest U.S. crypto platform, broke its rules by operating without registering with the regulator and letting users trade 13 assets that are securities. It comes just a day after the SEC charged fellow crypto platform Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao with securities law violations, leading investors to pull $780 million in 24 hours, reports Reuters.
The SEC lawsuit alleges that Binance misused customer funds and lied to regulators and investors, with claims that it commingled billions of dollars in client funds and diverted them to a separate firm run by Zhao.
In a statement, Binance said allegations that user assets were put at risk “are simply wrong.”
Exchanges outside the United States will be celebrating now as most US holders will move their assets outside the US. This is not the end of the crypto economy; it could just be a transmutation in the US.
The crypto world has been rocked in the past 48 hours, as the Securities and Exchange Commission clamps down on both Binance and Coinbase. The move deeply affected its CEOs’ wallets in the last two days, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Binance boss Changpeng Zhao saw his wealth drop by $1.4 billion to $26 billion, while Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s fell $361 million to $2.2 billion. The SEC charged Binance and Zhao with several securities law violations Monday and the following day filed a lawsuit against U.S. crypto platform Coinbase. A lawyer for the platform said it was prepared to take its legal fight with the SEC to the Supreme Court.
The SEC has also asked a federal court to freeze the assets of Binance’s U.S. operation, alleging that the world’s largest crypto exchange has shown “disregard” for the law and that customers’ funds are at risk.
Binance said allegations that user assets were ever put at risk “are simply wrong.”
The two exchanges both saw net outflows — the difference between deposits and withdrawals — of more than $1 billion in the 24 hours after the SEC’s lawsuits were announced, Fortune reports. (LinkedIn News)
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.