Currencies

Agency yields nothing in latest court filing as it wages campaign to regulate digital currencies other than bitcoin.


The Securities and Exchange Commission could soon bring enforcement action against Coinbase and it is likely to mirror moves the agency brought against rival crypto exchanges Bittrex and Kraken, Berenberg said in a research report.

The report came as the SEC issued a strong rebuttal to the exchange’s legal maneuver that sought to force the regulator to create rules for cryptocurrency issuance and trading.

At least 37% of the $736 million in revenue that Coinbase reported for the first quarter stemmed from the transaction fees and spreads it charges for trading tokens other than bitcoin, as well as from fees generated by its staking service, according to Berenberg, a Hamburg-based bank. These revenue streams as well as interest income related to usd coin (Coinbase earns proceeds on collateral under a revenue sharing arrangement with the stablecoin’s issuer, Circle) and the fees the exchange charges for custody “could get caught up in the SEC’s crypto-industry dragnet in the near future,” wrote Malk Palmer, senior equity research analyst at Berenberg, in a note shared with Forbes.

“Investors should believe the SEC when it says it views all crypto tokens other than bitcoin as unregistered securities. As such, all platforms that facilitate trading of those tokens in the U.S. are vulnerable to being hit with enforcement actions that would potentially impact large swaths of their business activities,” he explained, adding that “a successful pivot away from the U.S. would be a tall order for the exchange as about 86% of the revenue it generated during the 12 months ended March 31 was derived from its U.S. operations.”

The bank’s analysts gave Coinbase’s stock a hold rating with a price target of $55. The shares closed at $57.88 on Tuesday.

The SEC asked a federal court on Monday to deny Coinbase’s request for the agency to clarify its stance on crypto rulemaking.

“Coinbase’s preference for faster or different regulatory action by the commission does not entitle it to extraordinary relief from this court,” the commission’s lawyers stated in their brief. “The petition should be denied.”

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, responded to the SEC on Twitter, saying it may be the first time the agency has formally explained in court its views on whether and how it should create rules for the crypto industry.

“Overall the SEC’s response reinforces Coinbase’s longstanding concern that our industry does not have clarity on what the SEC may consider to be within or outside its jurisdiction at any time, and it is likely to continue changing its mind along the way,” Grewal wrote, adding that the company will issue a formal reply next week.

The SEC argues “it’s fully within its rights to wait years (literally) to decide whether to grant the petition” and that “it intends to keep right on suing crypto companies without any new rules,” writes James Murphy, a Virginia-based securities lawyer.

Citing examples where courts have denied relief to petitioners in cases where government agencies have waited years to take action on petitions, Murphy adds that the commission argues “this slow roll of the Coinbase petition is completely acceptable for government work.”

Murphy concluded: “It is entirely possible that the SEC will get away with this delay tactic.”

The commission’s response simply means “if you are doing a project that wants legal clarity and a sane, disclosed, reasonable legal regime, you 100% should not base your project in the United States,” wrote Austin Campbell, managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, in a Twitter post.

But this could “come back to haunt the SEC in court, though it will be very slow to manifest,” he added. “Suing crypto companies is far more difficult if you are simultaneously refusing to engage in rulemaking if a judge decides there were not clear rules. ‘You’re guilty for violating rules we won’t make or legacy rules that don’t clearly apply’ is not the greatest starting point for the SEC in many cases.”





Source link

Leave a Response