{"id":11874,"date":"2021-09-08T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T13:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/us-sec-threatens-to-sue-crypto-exchange-coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-responds\/"},"modified":"2021-09-08T13:54:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T13:54:03","slug":"us-sec-threatens-to-sue-crypto-exchange-coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/us-sec-threatens-to-sue-crypto-exchange-coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-responds\/","title":{"rendered":"US SEC Threatens to Sue Crypto Exchange Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong Responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has threatened to sue the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase over its lending product. The exchange says, \u201cWe don\u2019t know why \u2026 We got no explanation from the SEC.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coinbase Threatened by SEC<\/h2>\n

Coinbase revealed<\/a> Tuesday that it received a Wells notice from the SEC last Wednesday about its planned Lend program. A Wells notice is the official way a regulator tells a company it intends to sue the company in court.<\/p>\n

In a blog post titled \u201cThe SEC has told us it wants to sue us over Lend. We don\u2019t know why,\u201d Coinbase explained that it has been \u201cproactively engaging with the SEC about Lend for nearly six months\u201d so the notice came as a surprise. The company described that the Lend product will \u201callow eligible customers to earn interest on select assets on Coinbase, starting with 4% APY on USD coin (USDC).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange detailed:<\/p>\n

The SEC told us they consider Lend to involve a security, but wouldn\u2019t say why or how they\u2019d reached that conclusion \u2026 In June, we announced our Lend program publicly and opened a waitlist but did not set a public launch date. But once again, we got no explanation from the SEC. Instead, they opened a formal investigation.<\/p>\n

The SEC asked Coinbase for various documents, which the company said it \u201cwillingly provided.\u201d However, the regulator \u201calso asked for the name and contact information of every single person on our Lend waitlist,\u201d which Coinbase said it has not agreed to provide.<\/p>\n

Coinbase noted: \u201cThe SEC has repeatedly asked our industry to \u2018talk to us, come in.\u2019 We did that here. But today all we know is that we can either keep Lend off the market indefinitely without knowing why or we can be sued \u2026 The net result of all this is that we will not be launching Lend until at least October.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to Twitter to share his thoughts and clarify the situation with the SEC early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome really sketchy behavior coming out of the SEC recently,\u201d he began, adding:<\/p>\n

Ostensibly the SEC\u2019s goal is to protect investors and create fair markets. So who are they protecting here and where is the harm? People seem pretty happy to be earning yield on these various products, across lots of other crypto companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cShutting these down would arguably be harming consumers more than protecting them, and by preventing Coinbase from launching the same thing that other companies already have live, they\u2019re creating an unfair market,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

Armstrong further opined: \u201cIf we end up in court we may finally get the regulatory clarity the SEC refuses to provide. But regulation by litigation should be the last resort for the SEC, not the first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shark Tank star and owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, offered his opinion on the subject. He told Armstrong: \u201cBrian, this is \u2018Regulation via Litigation<\/a>.\u2019 They aren\u2019t capable of working through this themselves and are afraid of making mistakes in doing so. They leave it to the lawyers. Just the people you don\u2019t want impacting the new technologies. You have to go on the offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think about the SEC\u2019s action against Coinbase? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Bitcoin News
\nRegulation, Brian Armstrong, brian armstrong sued, Coinbase, coinbase crypto exchange, coinbase lend, coinbase sued, coinbase sued by sec, lend program, lending program, sec sues coinbase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has threatened to sue the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase over its lending product. The exchange says, \u201cWe don\u2019t know why \u2026 We got no explanation from the SEC.\u201d Coinbase Threatened by SEC Coinbase revealed Tuesday that it received a Wells notice from the SEC last Wednesday about its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain-news","category-coin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}