Crypto Biz: The SEC’s summer crackdown, Apple’s ‘spatial computing,’ and Mercado Bitcoin gears up
After a period of relative calm, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kicked off its summer crypto crackdown by targeting two major exchanges, Binance and Coinbase.
A total of 13 charges have been filed against Binance. One of the allegations in the suit claims that funds from Binance and Binance.US were commingled into an account controlled by the Changpeng Zhao-associated company, Merit Peak.
As for Coinbase, the SEC claims it has been offering unregistered securities and was never registered as a broker, securities exchange or clearing agency. Many in the crypto industry have been puzzled by the allegations against Coinbase, primarily because it is a publicly-traded company and received a previous green light from the regulator.
While not surprising, this week’s developments again shed light on the dubious practices of the SEC toward the crypto space, as it claimed companies failed to register with the regulator, despite the absence of a path to do so. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the latest string of lawsuits is an attempt by the SEC to “distract” from the agency’s “FTX debacle” Let’s not forget the SEC has not sued FTX, although it has charged its founder and former executives.
The crypto space has seen sell-offs in tokens and stocks, services halted and heightened uncertainty in recent days, but these events may also bring something that the industry is eager for — legal clarity.
Along with the recent wave of lawsuits, this week’s Crypto Biz also explores Apple’s new headset moving beyond the metaverse, Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin gets the green light for its fintech payments arm, and how European Union regulators are targeting fake news generated by artificial intelligence.
The SEC’s latest
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