Tag: Coinbase

Gensler’s Crypto Mess: It’s Time For Congress To Teach The SEC What “Clarity” Means

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By Jared Whitley. September 16, 2021. (Seeking Alpha).

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is playing a ridiculous game with the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry and the millions of investors it claims it’s trying to protect. The agency insists there is “clarity” on the rules it applies to digital assets, but will only communicate them through lawsuits. It tells the best, most innovative U.S. blockchain companies to “come in, talk to us,” and share the details of their product development line under the false pretense of guidance on being compliant, only to slap them with subpoenas instead. Not even the highest-priced securities lawyers can tell these companies what compliance looks like with any certainty. It’s driving exasperated American innovators overseas, and putting our economic future in danger.

If previous SEC Chairman Jay Clayton was the “most conflicted chairman in history”, then Biden’s pick – Gary Gensler – is the most clueless. Ever since he was confirmed he’s been saying that the rules on what makes a digital asset a security are “clear” and that he’s dedicated to “protecting investors”. But ask any retail digital asset investor and you’ll know that nothing is clear and none of them feels protected by Gensler. Quite the contrary, they see Gensler as the danger they need protection from.

It doesn’t even help to register your blockchain enterprise with the SEC to list it on the stock market. Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange platform, went public earlier this year and subjected itself to the full SEC cavity search. It competes with many non-listed blockchain companies offering lending products who haven’t faced any enforcement action from the SEC. Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong shared his proposed lending product with Gensler’s people and they warned him if he started offering it, they’d drag him into court unless he registered the offerings as securities. He asked for guidance on why, and they refused to answer. A Wells notice followed, which is how the SEC warns you a lawsuit is coming. This behavior by the SEC was so shocking that some of Coinbase’s fiercest competitors rose to its defense.

Read the Full Article Here.

The SEC has told us it wants to sue us over Lend. We don’t know why.

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By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase. September 7, 2021.

Last Wednesday, after months of effort by Coinbase to engage productively, the SEC gave us what’s called a Wells notice about our planned Coinbase Lend program. A Wells notice is the official way a regulator tells a company that it intends to sue the company in court. As surprised as we were at the SEC’s threat to sue without ever telling us why, we want to be transparent with you about the course of events leading up to it.

Background

Coinbase has been proactively engaging with the SEC about Lend for nearly six months. We’ve been eager to hear their perspective as we explore innovative ways for our customers to gain more financial empowerment on Coinbase. Specifically for Lend, we’re seeking to allow eligible customers to earn interest on select assets on Coinbase, starting with 4% APY on USD Coin (USDC). We could have simply launched the product but we chose not to. This is far from the norm in our industry. Other crypto companies have had lending products on the market for years, and new lending products continue to launch as recently as last month. But Coinbase believes in the value of open and substantive dialogue with our regulators. So we took Lend to the SEC first.

What we’ve provided to the SEC

Coinbase’s Lend program doesn’t qualify as a security — or to use more specific legal terms, it’s not an investment contract or a note. Customers won’t be “investing” in the program, but rather lending the USDC they hold on Coinbase’s platform in connection with their existing relationship. And although Lend customers will earn interest from their participation in the program, we have an obligation to pay this interest regardless of Coinbase’s broader business activities. What’s more, participating customers’ principal is secure and we’re obligated to repay their USDC on request.

Read the Full Coinbase Blog Post Here.