23rd March 2023 – (New York) Coinbase, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The notice signals that the SEC believes Coinbase may have violated securities laws by operating its exchange and staking services. The SEC has the option to sue Coinbase or take other enforcement actions against the company. Coinbase now has the opportunity to respond to the SEC’s allegations and negotiate a settlement with the agency.
On Wednesday, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, and several related entities. The SEC alleges that Sun’s projects sold and airdropped unregistered securities, committed fraud, and engaged in market manipulation. The SEC specifically pointed to the sale of the Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens, which it describes as unregistered crypto-asset securities. Following the announcement, the value of the Tron network’s native TRX token dropped by 13% to 5.8 cents.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s value gradually declined to just below $28,000 on Thursday. The decline followed the Federal Reserve’s announcement on Wednesday of a quarter-point interest-rate hike, which was in line with expectations. The Fed’s decision highlights its concerns about inflation and its commitment to returning inflation to its 2% objective. Following the Fed’s announcement, Bitcoin’s value briefly dipped below $27,000 as traders took profits on a 20% gain over a seven-day period. However, traders of Bitcoin-tracked futures experienced over $150 million in losses due to the volatility, and billions of open interest effectively got washed out.