Coinbase Faces SEC Investigation Over Cryptocurrency Listings

According to persons with knowledge of the situation, Coinbase Global Inc. is under investigation by the US government to determine whether it inappropriately permitted Americans to trade digital assets that ought to have been registered as securities. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attention to Coinbase has intensified since the platform boosted the number of tokens in which it offers a trade. The SEC’s investigation into an alleged insider trading scheme, which prompted the commission to sue a former Coinbase manager and two other individuals last week, precedes the enforcement unit’s investigation into that matter. In separate civil proceedings, the SEC said that Nikhil Wahi and another defendant, Sameer Ramani, had profitably marketed at most minuscule 25 crypto assets, nine of which it had designated as securities. When asked if the SEC would take action against Coinbase for listing the coins described as securities in the complaint, an SEC representative declined to comment. The report also cited two people: “the number of tokens in which Coinbase facilitates trading has increased since the platform grew.” Increasing Calls for Crypto Regulation As digital currencies have fallen from record highs, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, the drumbeat in Washington for US regulators to do more to supervise crypto has grown louder. Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC, has focused on trad...