Coinbase Responds to the SEC’s Lawsuit
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Coinbase for offering unregistered securities on its platform.
• In response, Coinbase argued that digital assets listed on its platform are not investment contracts and therefore do not fall under the purview of the SEC.
• Germany’s financial watchdog has denied crypto exchange Binance a custody license, while decentralized finance protocol Compound’s native token saw an increase in value over the past few days.
Coinbase Argues Against SEC Lawsuit
In its first legal response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) claimed that digital assets listed on its platform fall outside the regulator’s (SEC) purview. The SEC sued Coinbase at the beginning of June, alleging that a dozen of the cryptocurrencies offered through its wallet or trading platforms were unregistered securities. In its answer, filed early Thursday, Coinbase claimed that these cryptos are not investment contracts and therefore not securities – an argument it has advanced before in public statements but which Thursday’s filing goes into further detail about. According to Coinbase, cryptos on its secondary market platform are not part of any arrangements where a promoter is selling an asset tied to a contract – referring to language in Supreme Court precedent-setting Howey case law.
Binance Denied Custody License
Germany’s financial watchdog has decided not to grant crypto exchange Binance a custody license, news publication Finance Forward reported on Thursday. It is unclear if this was a formal decision from Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) or an intention expressed during ongoing discussions between Binance and BaFin officials; however, Binance remains committed to complying with BaFin requirements.
Compound Token Surges 50%
The native token of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Compound (COMP) has surged by more than 50% over the past four days alongside a spike in volume and outflows on Binance. COMP was trading at $45.98 at press time, higher by 51.4% since Sunday and doubling in value since April this year when it began trading publicly as part of DeFi yield farming frenzy .
Overall Market Reactions
Crypto markets have reacted positively overall with Bitcoin prices reaching all-time highs around $37K USD while Ethereum prices also reached new yearly highs around $2400 per ETH coin as well as other altcoins such as Polkadot seeing strong gains recently too..