The Financial Times recently published a report that sheds new light on the lawsuit that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated against the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase. According to the report, SEC initially asked Coinbase to delist all the cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin before suing the company.
In its lawsuit filing in early June, SEC charged Coinbase with “operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.” It also argued that the crypto exchange failed to “register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told the Financial Times that they could have avoided going to court if they had accepted the recommendation from SEC to trade only in Bitcoin.
“They came back to us, and they said . . . we believe every asset other than bitcoin is a security,” Armstrong told the media outlet. “ … We really didn’t have a choice at that point, delisting every asset other than bitcoin, which by the way is not what the law says, would have essentially meant the end of the crypto industry in the US.”
When Reuters reached out to Coinbase for further comments, the company’s spokesperson clarified that SEC didn’t make a formal request to delist all tokens besides Bitcoin. Instead, it was more of a recommendation and stance brought forward by individual SEC staffers.