FT — The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked Coinbase to halt trading in all cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin prior to suing the exchange, in a sign of the agency’s intent to assert regulatory authority over a broader slice of the market.
Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong told the Financial Times that the SEC made the recommendation before launching legal action against the Nasdaq-listed company last month for failing to register as a broker.
The SEC’s case identified 13 mostly lightly traded cryptocurrencies on Coinbase’s platform as securities, asserting that by offering them to customers the exchange fell under the regulator’s remit.
