Coinbase CEO Reveals SEC's Request to Suspend Trading in Non-Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requested the company to suspend trading in all cryptocurrencies except for Bitcoin (BTC) before initiating legal action against the exchange.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Armstrong shared that the SEC explicitly advised Coinbase to delist all of its more than 200 tokens, with the exception of Bitcoin, stating that every other asset was a security.
"They came back to us, and they said . . . we believe every asset other than bitcoin is a security," Armstrong said.
“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.”
This request signals the SEC's intention to exert regulatory authority over a broader portion of the crypto market.
Refusing to delist the other assets, Armstrong argued that complying would effectively mean the end of the crypto industry in the US.
"We really didn’t have a choice at that point, delisting every asset other than bitcoin, which by the way is not what the law says, would have essentially meant the end of the crypto industry in the US," he said.
"It kind of made it an easy choice . . . let’s go to court and find out what the court says."
Last month, the SEC sued Coinbase for selling unregistered securities and a number of other alleged wrongdoings.
The agency accused the company of operating as an unregistered broker and identified 13 cryptocurrencies on its platform as securities, falling under the regulator's jurisdiction.
Until now, oversight of the crypto industry has been uncertain, with both the SEC and the Commodity Futures
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