Coinbase, the US largest cryptocurrency exchange, days after the apprehension of its former employee, and two others for crypto insider trading, the firm is now under SEC investigation over crypto listings on its exchange.
According to a report by Bloomberg (citing people familiar with the matter), the US Securities and Exchange Commission has commenced an investigation into Coinbase on an allegation that it allowed US citizens to trade unregistered securities.
The current investigation is reportedly related to the recent exposure of the Coinbase products manager Ishan Wahi by the SEC.
SEC at the time of exposing the insider trading of Wahi didn’t allege that Coinbase is guilty in the process, in a statement by the SEC, it said that it had determined that nine tokens traded by the accused contained “hallmarks of the definition of a security.”
Of those nine digital assets mentioned by the SEC, seven are currently still listed at Coinbase.
Usually when the SEC wants to confirm if an asset is a security, it applies the so-called Howey Test—a set of standards that an investment must meet for the agency to consider it security and regulate it as such.
Recently, Coinbase increased the number of tokens offered on its exchange significantly, and currently, there are more than 150 tokens listed on the exchange.
It is necessary that you benefit from our ParadiseFamilyVIP discount code before it expires, use PRO20% for your 20% discount now; you will get the information and education from the Paradise Team to make you stand out amid other crypto trader, we make daily analyses of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other trending altcoins on Binance (Spot&Futures), Kucoin, and Bybit exchanges, make necessary adjustments on our positions to conform with the recent market situation.
With us, you will get the right psychology of trading to survive any market conditions. Click here to see reviews from our clients.
Coinbase Fires back
In response to the Bloomberg reports, Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer on Twitter denied the allegation.
“We are confident that our rigorous diligence process―a process the SEC has already reviewed―keeps securities off our platform, and we look forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter,” he tweeted.
In a recent blog post by Coinbase, the firm said that “this process includes an analysis of whether the asset could be considered to be a security, and also considers regulatory compliance and information security aspects of the asset.”
“Coinbase does not list securities on its platform. Period” noted in the blog post.
Before that, Coinbase said the company had filed a petition with the SEC to improve “rulemaking on digital asset securities.”
According to the company, the “petition calls on the SEC to develop a workable regulatory framework for digital asset securities guided by formal procedures and a public notice-and-comment process, rather than through arbitrary enforcement or guidance developed behind closed doors.”
Join our telegram channels where we share our FREE updates and analysis on coins like BTC, ETH, and other trending altcoins. We also share our FREE secret insights. And also FREE market updates.
- My Binance Paradise – https://t.me/MCP_binance
- My KuCoin Paradise – https://t.me/MCP_KuCoin
