Coinbase is currently under increased scrutiny from various American financial regulatory agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission is keeping a close eye on the activities that are taking place on the cryptocurrency exchange platform (SEC). According to three sources familiar with the situation who spoke to Bloomberg, the latter organization believes Coinbase is responsible for allowing its customers to exchange assets that ought to have been registered as financial securities. An inquiry would have been started into the matter.
According to a statement made by the company's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal on Twitter, “We are confident that our stringent due diligence process – a process that the SEC has previously reviewed – drives securities off our platform,” and the company is “looking forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter.” At the same time that the ratings of cryptocurrency exchanges were plummeting and their market value was being wiped out by hundreds of billions of dollars, voices have been raised in Washington for several months calling for US regulators to intensify their controls on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Coinbase identifies seven risks that could affect the company's future as well as the future of cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase, the largest trading platform in the United States, enables users to trade over 150 different tokens. Should these products be regarded as securities, the company might be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Following the publication of this survey, the price of Coinbase shares in New York dropped from $14.14 to $52.93.
Investing frequently in cryptocurrencies is recommended in order to spread out the risk.
Since the beginning of the year, Coinbase has been engaged in a conflict with the regulatory agency. According to Bloomberg, the platform made a request to the SEC a week ago, asking them to propose clearer regulations regarding cryptocurrencies. The situation became tenser on July 21, when the SEC accused one of the company's former employees of engaging in illegal insider trading by disclosing confidential information to his brother and a friend in order to assist them in purchasing tokens prior to their debut on the platform.
