- Coinbase’s lawsuit could be fully dismissed by the end of February
- Policy watchers believe other SEC lawsuits could be dropped too
The United States’ SEC has agreed to dismiss Coinbase’s lawsuit pending approval by the agency. According to analysts, this would mark a regulatory shift from the spree of infamous enforcement actions seen under the previous regime.
For his part, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong projected that the Commission would approve the dismissal by next week.
“Once approved by the Commission (which we’re told to expect next week), this would be a full dismissal, with $0 in fines paid and zero changes to our business.”
Worth noting, however, that Armstrong castigated the previous SEC regime under Gary Gensler. According to the exec, caving to his “bullying” would have limited the U.S crypto industry.
“The SEC made it clear to us that the only way to avoid litigation was to delist the many assets they falsely claimed were securities. It was a bullying tactic, pure and simple, driven by Gensler’s own political agenda.”
New pro-crypto SEC
For context, Coinbase’s lawsuit has been ongoing for two years, and one of the SEC’s claims was offering unregistered securities. The regulator referred to tokens like Solana, Cardano, and Polygon, which were offered through the exchange.
Similar claims were also levelled against Ripple, Binance, and Kraken. In its defence, Coinbase claimed that these tokens didn’t fall within the SEC’s definition of a “security.”
Now, the exchange has been vindicated, thanks to the new SEC and the pro-crypto position of the Trump administration.
One of President Trump’s pledges is to make the U.S the crypto capital of the world. All while making major changes at the SEC. In fact, the agency has already formed a Crypto Task Force headed by Commissioner Hester Pierce to drive more regulatory clarity in the space.
The withdrawal of the lawsuit against Coinbase could be the start of a larger trend, one that could see other enforcement actions dropped. In fact, according to attorney Jeremy Hogan, Ripple’s lawsuit might be dropped soon as well.
For his part, Hasseb Qureshi, Partner at crypto VC Dragonfly, termed the Coinbase update as “historic.” He also thanked the SEC’s Acting Chair Mark Uyeda and Pierce for bringing back sanity to the industry.
“Absolutely historic day. The siege against crypto has ended. Now it’s our turn to show the world what crypto can do once it’s unshackled.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s legal chief. He said,
“Now the U.S can finally get back to doing what it does best: building innovative tech that improves the world.”
