The SEC Sues America's Other Crypto Giant

The gloves are coming off, and things are getting desperate for Gary Gensler

Nov 21, 2023

GM! The SEC goes after another crypto exchange, the DOJ closes in on a record fine for Binance (and maybe criminal charges) and YOU can win 0.25 ETH picking the best project in crypto! Plus — what Argentina electing Latin America’s latest pro-bitcoin President means for the movement! You can catch us chatting all these headlines and more on our latest Space (per usual) but first …

In The SEC’s Latest Offensive…

Despite the fact that a Bitcoin ETF looks like it’s finally becoming an inevitability, Gary Gensler’s SEC will not go gently into that good night. The agency came back for seconds to sue Kraken — one of America’s longstanding crypto giants, which had already paid to settle a prior issue with the SEC. Last time, it was due to “staking as a service” but this time around, the SEC is looking to go after Kraken’s heart in labeling it a non-compliant, unregistered securities exchange.

“In failing to prevent known conflicts of interest and commingling its investors’ assets with its own, Kraken demonstrates why registration and the investor protections that come with regulatory oversight are critical to the soundness of the United States capital markets,” the SEC said.

Among other things, the SEC is seeking to halt Kraken’s operations as an unregistered exchange. Kraken, for its part, hit back with a statement of its own: “We disagree with the SEC's complaint against Kraken, stand firm in our view that we do not list securities and plan to vigorously defend our position," the company’s release said.

In terms of trading volumes, Kraken has recently been right up there with Coinbase, so yeah, this is a big shot by the SEC.

In The DOJ’s Latest Offensive…

The DOJ has reportedly been finalizing plans to go after Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange and its founder, CZ. On Monday, Bloomberg reported what that hammer might look like: A record $4 billion in fines and restitution for Binance, and potential criminal charges for CZ. If that sounds surprising, perhaps it’s worth noting that Binance stands accused of a lot of the same things that FTX and SBF were accused of doing. Bloomberg said a settlement could come as soon as this month.

In Argentina’s Bitcoin Election…

Political columnists around the world are continuing to grapple with the shock of outsider Javier Milei claiming Argentina’s top office in a major victory Sunday. The guy is getting compared to Trump, but the two aren’t really all that comparable. Trump once called Bitcoin a scam, Milei very much understands the benefits of hard money — so much so he wants to abolish the country’s central bank.

People are celebrating the G-20’s first pro-bitcoin president, and personally, I can’t wait to see what Milei does to combat Argentina’s 143% inflation rate by dollarizing the economy. (On a panel this past week for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the director of the CFTC’s tech office and I were agreeing Argentina is the perfect playground for Bitcoin’s tech.)

In Winning 0.25 ETH…

Coinage is back with another way for one of our NFT holders to win 0.25 ETH — this time by taking 1 minute to predict a Champ in our Crypto Project of the Year celebration. We have compiled 16 projects which we’ll spotlight in the coming weeks. Now, you can predict how the projects might fare as we seek to let the Coinage community vote on the most promising projects. Only one can be called Coinage’s Crypto Project of the Year! 0.25 ETH will go to the most correct bracket. Submit your picks before next week!

In Other Headlines…

LAST REMINDER: If you are a Coinage Subscriber NFT holder who hasn’t upgraded to a Caucus NFT holder, this week will be your last chance to do so at a steep discount. Prices will rise from 0.07 ETH next week! Hurry up to 5x your voting power and unlock the ability to co-own the fastest growing name in Web3 news!

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