Every U.S. crypto exchange is being investigated by the national government regulatory agency according to senator
Widely circulated reports that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating $20 billion crypto exchange Coinbase are just the tip of the iceberg, according to a staffer from U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis’ (R-Wy) office. The staffer says every U.S. crypto exchange—and the largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance—are in various stages of being investigated. There are more than 40 U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges, according to crypto data site, CoinGecko. The SEC has not responded to multiple requests for comment
Coming in the wake of a number of SEC actions asserting the regulator’s domain over the crypto industry, and an equally strong response by the U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) pushing back against what it characterizes as “regulation through enforcement,” the staffer says the SEC urgently wants to resolve its dispute with the CFTC over crypto jurisdiction. If the matter isn’t resolved internally, he says legislators would have to get involved, and that Congress is likely to side with the CFTC.
In 2014, long before ethereum and pretty much any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin and its early copycats existed, the CFTC asserted its jurisdiction over what it then called “virtual currencies.” Then, in 2018, a Federal Court ruled that the CFTC could prosecute fraud cases involving virtual currency, according to a CFTC statement. Similarly, the SEC has multiple times asserted that bitcoin is a commodity. And in June 2018 SEC director William Hinman said in a speech that he didn’t think ethereum was a security, implying it might properly be under the CFTC’s jurisdiction.
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