The US financial market authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on Tuesday brought the first cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, to civil court for non-compliance with regulations, causing the fall of the stock on Wall Street.
This is a new blow to the sector by the SEC, which, failing to see Congress define a legislative framework, has taken control of the regulation of cryptocurrencies, which it considers to be under its authority.
In electronic trading prior to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, the Coinbase title lost more than 20%. Asked by Agence France-Presse, Coinbase did not respond immediately.
News of the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan comes a day after the SEC also subpoenaed the world’s leading crypto-asset exchange, Binance, for knowingly circumventing regulations to deal with American customers.
The market policeman criticizes Coinbase for not having registered with him as an exchange platform and intermediary for cryptocurrency transactions. By the end of 2022, Coinbase had 110 million users and $80 billion in assets housed on its platform.
Coinbase’s subpoena comes as a hearing on cryptocurrency regulation was scheduled to take place on Tuesday before the House Agriculture Committee, whose interest in financial markets dates back to commodity-related derivatives. agricultural. Among the personalities called to testify is the chief legal officer of Coinbase Paul Grewal.
In a statement released Monday ahead of his hearing, the leader called on the US Congress to legislate quickly to give visibility to the sector. “The United States is being left behind” by other countries with more mature legislation, argued the lawyer, and “is pushing technology and innovators abroad due to a lack of clear rules for cryptocurrencies. “.
On Thursday, two elected Republicans in the House of Representatives published a text supposed to serve as the basis for a bill aimed at regulating crypto-assets. It foresees that regulation could be split between the SEC and the US financial derivatives regulator, the CFTC.
Other bills have already been presented in recent years, but so far, none has made it to the vote stage.