Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood recently added her voice to the ongoing regulatory climate surrounding cryptocurrencies. Wood, who has previously shown support to the crypto community, has stated that she remains “very positive” on Coinbase — one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges — following the partial victory of Ripple over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The case involved Ripple and SEC with a pivotal point of whether XRP tokens sold to retail investors qualify as securities. A favorable ruling for Ripple indicated that the tokens were not securities, which could imply smoother waters ahead for both Coinbase and Binance as they spar with regulatory authorities.
While Wood acknowledged the ruling wasn’t a total triumph for Ripple, the outcome was seen as strongly favorable for crypto exchanges. However, not everyone shares this optimistic outlook. Berenberg Capital Markets, suggest that the situation with regulatory aspects for crypto exchanges is still uncertain.
A product on Coinbase, Coinbase Earn, newly placed under scrutiny, may well be classified as a security following the comments made by Judge Torres during the Ripple trial. If that happens, Coinbase might find itself back in the hot seat.
Signs of the exchange’s resilience can be seen in the stock’s performance. Despite two sizable blows – receiving a Wells Notice in March and a lawsuit from SEC in June – Coinbase’s share price held firm.
Yet, the regulatory dance crypto exchanges find themselves in is unlikely to be concluded soon. As Gary Gensler, Chair of the SEC highlights, “these crypto platforms are commingling a number of services that […] we would not allow in any other parts of our capital markets.”
These vital converging points hint that while the ripple ruling might have been a small victory, it is far from being a game-changer. Both the proponents and skeptics of crypto exchanges are carefully tuned into the complex regulatory climate enveloping the sector, and the future remains unpredictably exciting.
Source: Cointelegraph
