SEC To Crypto: Kill It Till It’s Dead

Here’s a quick rundown of just some of the responses out there to the SEC’s attack on crypto:

Senator Bill Hagerty – “The SEC is weaponizing their role to kill an industry. Allowing a company to list publicly and then stonewalling their attempts to register is indefensible. Expect to hear from Congress.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis – “… The SEC’s continued reliance on regulation by enforcement continues to harm consumers.”

Cameron Winklevoss – “Being sued by the SEC used to mean you probably did something wrong. Now it means you’re probably doing something right.”

Jim Cramer – “All these crypto assets seem to be fraudulent, and I want you to get out of them”

Zmanian – “The claim NewTendermint is a significant contributor to Cosmos. No contribution occurred.”

$COIN CEO Brian Armstrong: 

Regarding the SEC complaint against us today, we're proud to represent the industry in court to finally get some clarity around crypto rules.

Remember:
1. The SEC reviewed our business and allowed us to become a public company in 2021.
2. There is no path to "come in and…

— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) June 6, 2023

$COTI‘s Shahaf Bar-Geffen says a lot and nothing at all in a three-piece Twitter thread:

@COTInetwork celebrates its fourth anniversary of successfully launching its mainnet, while fear and uncertainty shadow our industry, with the latest SEC vs @Binance @cz_binance vs @coinbase situation.

1/3

— Shahaf Bar-Geffen (@shahafbg) June 6, 2023

Ripple’s ($XRP) Brad Garlinghouse:

If it wasn’t already clear, it should be now – Chair Gensler’s laughable “pro-innovation” stance (as he said today), is exactly the opposite. What this also tells me is that the SEC is throwing lawsuits at the wall and hoping they distract from the agency’s FTX debacle.

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 6, 2023

The Cardano Foundation, in a typical professional fashion, tweeted it disagreed with the SEC’s classification of $ADA as a security:

“The Cardano Foundation disagrees with the recent qualification of ADA as a security under US law. We look forward to the continued engagement with regulators and policymakers to achieve legal clarity and certainty on these matters. – @F_Gregaard as quoted in @FortuneMagazine. https://t.co/ewYso7kWBE

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) June 6, 2023

Just a taste of what’s going on and being said out there – and they keep piling up. 

Probably don’t have to spend a whole heck of a lot of time here, but if you didn’t know already, *gasp* the SEC is going after Coinbase now, too.

The SEC claims that $COIN has operated as an unregistered broker since at least 2019. The other things Coinbase is accused of:

• Operating as an unregistered Securities Exchange
• Operating as an unregistered Clearing Agency

But, they were cool with Coinbase’s IPO in April 2021. 

On the same day, *gasp* Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin have likewise gone after Coinbase. 

While Coinbase has expressed a willingness to work with the SEC, it disagrees with the SEC’s position that all digital assets on its platform should be registered as securities.

In the February 13, 2023, Litepaper, we looked at Coinbase’s public posts that they’re ready, willing, and want to duke it out with the SEC, so this isn’t a big surprise. 

From May 6, 2021, in front of the House Committee on Financial Services:

2/ After he was confirmed to his post as Chairman of the SEC, Gensler testified to Congress, on May 6, 2021, that:

THE SEC DOES NOT HAVE AUTHORITY FROM CONGRESS TO REGULATE CRYPTO EXCHANGES.

Watch this 👇 pic.twitter.com/mk48S36FHm

— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) May 3, 2023

You can’t blame the SEC for these kinds of oversights; they only have thousands of employees versus the tens of millions of internet sleuths in crypto. 

The Twitter thread from MetaLawMan (a popular crypto attorney) is very informative but do your research and due diligence. 

With the war for crypto independence in full swing, traders, investors, and degens alike must treat any information as suspect. 🕵️‍♂️

The SEC listed several cryptocurrencies as securities in their lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase – eight of the nineteen were mentioned in both.

How are they doing today? Let’s look:

$SOL  -7.46% 

$ADA -9.06%

$FIL -5.61%

$MATIC -6.45%

 $SAND -7.47%

$MANA -8.15%

$ALGO -7.61%

$AXS -7.01%

Not so great when compared to the total market cap, which is down only -2.88%. And some of their charts look worse than the others. 

But none look as bad as Algorand’s weekly chart. Oof. 

ALGO is on its eighth straight week in the red and poised to hit a new all-time low for a weekly close, surpassing the March 2020 low.