US tightens crackdown on crypto with lawsuits against Coinbase, Binance

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Coinbase on Tuesday, the second lawsuit in two days against a major crypto exchange, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry and one that could dramatically transform a market that has largely operated outside regulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday took aim at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC accuses Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao of operating a «web of deception». If successful, the lawsuits could transform the crypto market by successfully asserting the SEC's jurisdiction over the industry which for years has argued that tokens do not constitute securities and should not be regulated by the SEC. «The two cases are different, but overlap and point in the same direction: the SEC's increasingly aggressive campaign to bring cryptocurrencies under the jurisdiction of the federal securities laws,» said Kevin O'Brien, a partner at Ford O'Brien Landy and a former federal prosecutor, adding, however, that the SEC has not previously taken on such major crypto players.

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«If the SEC prevails in either case, the cryptocurrency industry will be transformed.» In its complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the SEC said Coinbase has since at least 2019 made billions of dollars by operating as a middleman on crypto transactions, while evading disclosure requirements meant to protect investors. The SEC said Coinbase traded at least