• Senator Cynthia Lummis has expressed her opinion on the recent enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Coinbase.
• She believes that the SEC’s approach to regulation needs to be more practical and conducive to good business practices, as it would only stifle the growth of innovative technologies like bitcoin.
• The SEC had filed a lawsuit against Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, accusing them of operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis Criticizes SEC Over Coinbase Enforcement Actions
Senator Cynthia Lummis has expressed her opinion on the recent enforcement action taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Coinbase. She believes that instead of punishing Coinbase for trying to comply with regulations, their efforts should have been acknowledged by the regulator. Sen. Lummis has called for amenable regulations that are more practical towards promoting innovation in America.
Coinbase’s Compliance Efforts
The Wyoming senator mentioned during an interview with Yahoo Finance that she was “scratching her head about why they would do that with Coinbase” when referring to the SEC’s enforcement actions against it. Despite repeated requests for guidance on compliance by Coinbase and other industry players, according to Sen. Lummis, no adequate response was provided from the regulator which led it to take this route instead.
SEC Lawsuit Against Binance
It will be recalled that on Jun 5th 2021, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao. This was due to allegations such as operating unregistered exchanges/broker-dealers/clearing agencies misrepresenting trading controls/overview on Binance US platform as well as offering/selling securities without registration among other accusations . According to Senator Cynthia Lummis she could understand why this action was taken as Binance is a large international company unlike Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase which is based domestically in USA .
Coinbase CEO’s Opinion
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal , Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong voiced his concerns about how US crypto regulations may slow down American innovation with regards to cryptocurrencies . He argued that these stringent rules have placed competing countries at an advantage as they can move faster than US companies in developing new technologies related to cryptocurrency .
Conclusion
Since then Senator Cynthia Lummis has been vocal about her opinions concerning regulatory authorities’ treatment towards cryptocurrency startups such as Coinbase , while some agree there is still need for clear laws governing digital assets many believe regulators should support existing compliance efforts rather than punishing organizations trying their best adhere set standards thus allowing innovation flourish in America