File – The mobile phone icon for the Coinbase app is shown in this photo, in New York, Tuesday, April 13, 2021. The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Coinbase with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
(NewsNation) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto company Coinbase for allegedly acting as an unregistered broker.
“Since at least 2019, Coinbase has made billions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities,” the SEC said in a press release. “Coinbase intertwines the traditional services of an exchange, broker, and clearing agency without having registered any of those functions with the Commission as required by law.”
The suit came just 24 hours after the filed a similar suit against rival crypto exchange Binance.
“The whole business model is built on a noncompliance with the U.S. securities laws and we’re asking them to come into compliance,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler told CNBC.
Both civil cases are part Gensler’s push to assert jurisdiction over the crypto industry, which he on Tuesday again labeled a “Wild West” that has undermined investor trust in the U.S. capital markets.
Crypto companies say SEC rules are unclear and it is overreaching in its attempt to regulate them.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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