Coinbase CEO Says the Crypto Exchange Has Been Always Transparent With US SEC

Coinbase Global's CEO Brian Armstrong said on Wednesday that the crypto exchange has a long history of being transparent with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Armstrong was speaking in an interview with CNBC, a day after the company was sued by the US securities regulator on allegations it failed to register as an exchange.

"The SEC allowed us to become a public company ... so, its not great to have a regulator come back and say, actually, we changed our mind," Armstrong said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities that should have been registered, including tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polygon.

Coinbase shares rebounded on Wednesday to rise nearly 1 percent to $52.03 (nearly Rs. 4,000).

The stock has declined about 20 percent since the SEC sued Coinbase and rival Binance alleging securities law violations, wiping roughly $3 billion (nearly Rs. 24,800 crore) from Coinbase's market value.

Short sellers have raked in roughly $463 million (nearly. Rs. 3,800 crore) in paper profits betting against Coinbase over the past two sessions, according to data from analytics firm Ortex.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission have accused the company of operating illegally because it failed to register as an exchange. The lawsuit is the SEC's second in two days against a major crypto exchange, following its case against Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and founder Changpeng Zhao.

Crypto companies say the SEC rules are unclear, and that the agency is overreaching by trying to regulate them. On the other hand, ten US states led by California also on Tuesday accused Coinbase of securities law violations concerning its staking rewards program.

© Thomson Reuters 2023