Coinbase disagrees with Brian Armstrong's views expressed in the FT
Coinbase disagrees with Brian Armstrong's views expressed in the FT
Following words by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the exchange has issued a statement saying that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not ask the platform to delist any assets before suing the exchange.
Coinbase said Brian Armstrong's statement in a Financial Times article that the SEC asked the exchange to stop trading "all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin" was an "inaccurate representation of the facts," Blockworks reported.
"Prior to litigation, the SEC did not at any point request that Coinbase delist any specific assets, which the SEC acknowledges in the same article," a spokesperson for the exchange said.
"The interview as published earlier today by the Financial Times omits important context regarding our conversations with the SEC," he added.
Coinbase said in a statement that the original article "implied that the SEC ordered Coinbase" to stop trading.
According to the original article, Armstrong said in an interview with the Financial Times that the SEC said Coinbase needed "to delist every asset other than Bitcoin" because "every asset other than Bitcoin is a security."
However, Coinbase said that such orders can only be sent after approval by a majority of SEC commissioners, which is entirely consistent with the SEC's assertion in the FT article.
"SEC staff does not ask companies to delist crypto assets. In the course of an investigation, the staff may share its own view as to what conduct may raise questions for the Commission under the securities laws," an SEC spokesperson said in response to Blockworks' inquiry about whether the regulator could have required the delisting of all assets.
Recall that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in a Washington court against the crypto exchange Coinbase, accusing it of violating the securities law.
Also read: Sam Altman's Worldcoin project reached the record mark of one million wallets.
