Coinbase could walk away without any fine|Ivan Radic|CC BY 2.0
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to drop its 2023 lawsuit against Coinbase, the crypto marketplace announced yesterday.
It aimed to regulate the crypto trading platform like a stock exchange and classify crypto assets as securities.
It is a major reversal in the SEC’s approach to crypto regulation, which, under former head Gary Gensler (a Biden appointee), heavily cracked down on crypto.
The new move reflects President Donald Trump and his administration’s pro-crypto stance.
Trump has been vocal about his support for tokens and even launched his own $TRUMP memecoin in January, which briefly surpassed $50 billion in value. One of his campaign promises was to reduce regulations and establish a national bitcoin reserve.
While crypto advocates celebrate, critics warn that scaling back enforcement could embolden bad actors in an industry historically prone to fraud. In 2022, the Justice Department arrested a former Coinbase employee and his brother for leaking asset listing details.
Bitcoin has surged past $100,000, and memecoins are booming, but even Coinbase CEO Armstrong warns some have “gone too far.”