Coinbase shares experienced a sharp decline of over 18% to $48.53 in pre-market trading on Tuesday, as investors weighed the potential implications of a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange. The lawsuit follows similar charges brought against rival exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao the day before.
The SEC has accused Coinbase of violating securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency. These allegations are analogous to those made against Binance, although the SEC did not accuse Coinbase of commingling customer funds. Furthermore, Coinbase’s staking products, where customers can lock up their tokens like Ethereum for rewards, have been labeled as unregistered securities offerings. This enforcement action follows a Wells Notice received by Coinbase in March, which warned the exchange that its staking products may violate securities regulations.
This double enforcement action by the SEC against two of crypto’s largest centralized exchanges marks the latest chapter in the agency’s crackdown on the digital assets industry. The regulator has ramped up its enforcement efforts following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November last year. Other digital asset firms, such as U.S.-based exchange Kraken, have also faced enforcement actions from the SEC this year.
Coinbase has been operating as an unregistered broker since at least 2019, according to the SEC’s complaint, well before it became the first publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange. Going public, as Coinbase did in April 2021, mandates companies to register as publicly-traded entities with the SEC. Coinbase has countered that the SEC is putting its reputation at risk by pursuing charges against the company after approving its S-1 filing to go public two years prior.
Interestingly, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was not named in the lawsuit, unlike the SEC’s case against Binance. Nonetheless, both lawsuits share similarities in that various tokens traded on the platforms, such as Solana and Polygon, have been classified as securities.
In light of decreased trading activity following the pandemic-era boom, Coinbase has turned to services like staking as a means to diversify its revenue sources away from trading fees. However, the SEC’s lawsuit could alter the viability and profitability of this shift. Back in late 2021, when cryptocurrency prices soared, Coinbase’s stock price thrived on the fervor for digital assets. Since then, however, its shares have tumbled 86% from an all-time high of $357.39, recorded in November of that year.
Source: Decrypt
