The regulator reportedly wanted Coinbase to cease trading all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin before its legal action against the exchange.
The exchange was instructed to stop all cryptocurrency trading activities other than Bitcoin (BTC) by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, is quoted in a Financial Times (FT) piece. He asserts that the SEC’s request was made before the regulator sued the exchange.
On July 6, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange for allegedly operating illegally in the US. In addition, Armstrong thinks that the agency’s demand to stop all digital asset trading activity — with Coinbase offering more than 200 currencies — would have meant “the end of the crypto industry in the US.”
“They came back to us, and they said . . . we believe every asset other than Bitcoin is a security. And, we said, well how are you coming to that conclusion, because that’s not our interpretation of the law. And they said, we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other than Bitcoin.”
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, told FT. According to the article, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the exchange for marketing the 13 cryptocurrencies that the agency considers securities.
The 40-year-old CEO claims Coinbase’s decision to keep the assets listed was simple. “It kind of made it an easy choice … let’s go to the court and find out what the court says,” Armstrong continued.
