Coinbase CEO Says SEC is On 'Lone Crusade' (cnbc.com) 54
The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, doubled down on his criticisms of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler Monday, but added the exchange would not leave the U.S. despite the regulatory uncertainty the company is facing in the country. From a report: The SEC earlier this year served Coinbase with a Wells Notice, a letter that the regulator sends to a company or firm at the conclusion of an SEC investigation that states the SEC is planning to bring an enforcement action against them. At the heart of the regulator's dispute with Coinbase, and a host of other crypto companies, is the allegation that it is selling unregistered securities to investors. Coinbase disputes this.
"The SEC is a bit of an outlier here," Armstrong told CNBC's Dan Murphy in an interview in Dubai Monday. "There's kind of a lone crusade, if you will, with Gary Gensler, the chair there, and he has taken a more anti-crypto view for some reason...I don't think he's necessarily trying to regulate the industry as much as maybe curtail it. But he's created some lawsuits, and I think it's quite unhelpful for the industry in the U.S. writ large, but it also is an opportunity for Coinbase to go get that clarity from the courts that we feel will really benefit the crypto industry and also the U.S. more broadly."
"The SEC is a bit of an outlier here," Armstrong told CNBC's Dan Murphy in an interview in Dubai Monday. "There's kind of a lone crusade, if you will, with Gary Gensler, the chair there, and he has taken a more anti-crypto view for some reason...I don't think he's necessarily trying to regulate the industry as much as maybe curtail it. But he's created some lawsuits, and I think it's quite unhelpful for the industry in the U.S. writ large, but it also is an opportunity for Coinbase to go get that clarity from the courts that we feel will really benefit the crypto industry and also the U.S. more broadly."
More slashdot crypt-propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
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Pretty much this. It's their job to rein in scammers and ponzi schemes. That's their reason to exist.
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Those who hopped on the Bitcoin bus early also didn't do any actual work of any kind, and only lazy morons think Lambos are cool/good cars.
Re:More slashdot crypt-propaganda (Score:4, Interesting)
The purpose of the SEC is to regulate the securities markets and protect investors. Coinbase asserts they aren't doing that job in crypto markets. Instead of creating regulations, guardrail rules for what is and is not acceptable, they sit in wait for a crypto company to get big enough to matter and then swat them down. This creates uncertainty around crypto that hurts broader crypto adoption.
My understanding is that Coinbase's lawsuit is essentially "Do your damn job and publish rules for crypto exchanges in the US instead of regulating by lawsuit after the fact."
Regulation is a problem. As a data point, the first BTC exchange I used was killed by the Georgia Banking commission. Damn shame; they were good folks. :/
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Crypto bros want to push the boundries as far as they can. And cry when they get caught going too far.
Hire a lawyer who specialises in this and find out where the boundaries are for the new thing your trying to do. Don't want to pay real money (no cryptos) then stumble around in the dark. Just don't complain you didn't want to turn on the lights.
Re:More slashdot crypt-propaganda (Score:4, Insightful)
This creates uncertainty around crypto that hurts broader crypto adoption.
And nothing of value is lost.
(in fact, value may be created - it's all a Ponzi scheme)
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As another data point, Today's /. headlines include
US Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files For Bankruptcy [slashdot.org].
Founded and operating since 2014, Bittrex got up to a billion in revenue (big enough to matter) then the SEC squished them. The SEC lawsuit [sec.gov]'s primary grievance is that the company advised crypto creators on what terms and phrases were likely to cause SEC scrutiny, e.g. describing it as an investment, growth projections, etc.
Interresting viewpoint (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the cryptocurrency business has reached _none_ of the goals they stated in their early days, and doing that at the expense of everyone else, it only seems very mild to just want to regulate it. Any sane regulation would just outright ban it.
So far the only remaining effect is to cause harm to the world, from ransomware to the waste of huge quantities of precious resources.
Re: Interresting viewpoint (Score:5, Insightful)
Also every coin from a crypto currency has value where as the traditional dollar does not have inherent value within its self
This is total bollocks. Neither bitcoins nor USD have inherent value. That's not strictly true of course; paper USD has a tiny amount of actual value in that you can snort coke with it, or crumple it up and wipe your ass with it. Bitcoin has negative inherent value, in that it costs you electricity just to check your balance. Its only value is the same as USD, whatever someone will give you for it. Except whereas the USD is backed by the US economy, and the US military, Bitcoin is backed up by hopes and prayers.
USD has value because I can pay my taxes with it (Score:3)
Bitcoin has value because it's useful for money laundering and ponzi schemes. It's valuable because when you're committing crimes you don't care so much if you lose 50% of your net revenue to other scammers. That's just "cost of doing business".
Legit b
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A few main differences between USD and Bitcoin:
One is controlled by people who have a significant vested interest in keeping it as stable as possible, with 1 unit of currency issued a year ago having the same buying power today, within a few single digit percentage points.
The other is controlled by people who have a significant vested interest in increasing the buying power of 1 unit of currency issued a year ago, often by orders of magnitude.
One is controlled by people who foster an entire economy surround
Re: Interresting viewpoint (Score:3, Informative)
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If I was able to get a higher amount due to different local rates, then I would not go to work, as I would be able to sit at home and just earn by money risk free.
I assume this is precisely what currency traders do, though not without some risk.
Re: Interresting viewpoint (Score:1)
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This is a nice theoretical picture, but it doesn't correspond exactly to the real world. In reality, there are differences in exchange rates from place to place and from time to time, so making a series of trades will wind u
Re: Interresting viewpoint (Score:1)
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Crypto industry has been very successful at reducing the cost and processing time of international transactions over $5000 in value
Has it? Where can I can find evidence of that fact? How would doing 2 exchange transactions (USD to BTC, transfer, BTC to USD) end up cheaper and faster than just doing ACH or other established banking method?
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I don't know about cheaper, but I do know that it is faster.
Faster in that you can do crypto transactions outside of business hours. In many ways, crypto is a slow Venmo that doesn't do any regulatory checks.
Considering the listed banking fees for transferring money from the US to Mexico, I have a hard time imagining that BTC transfers aren't cheaper.
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Sure, it may be faster based on ACH operating during business time but that is changing along with more and more adoption of faster and same day ACH.
At the end of the day ACH is
Considering the listed banking fees for transferring money from the US to Mexico, I have a hard time imagining that BTC transfers aren't cheaper.
There was a pretty strong claim made by the OP that crypto was superior on both fronts and eastablished as such, I have not seen or read anything of the sort and considering ACH transfers something like $70 trillion a year it's gonna take more than a bit faster and a bit cheaper to put a dent in it.
doesn't do any regulatory checks.
The importance of this to the globa
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Do you have that much success with this sales pitch now? Are there still sufficient numbers of idiots with anti-fiat fetishes that haven't lost their houses?
Fiat currencies, at a minimum, are backed by nation states and their central banks. There's an actual real world economy which creates at least some inherent value in the currency.
Crypto has none of these things; no backing, no issuing authority with any quantitative or heck even qualitative economic activity behind it. As a money transfer mechanism, I
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When I look at crypto-currency, I see something like company scrip, but even worse in that it takes significant resources to produce it and there isn't even something like a company with its own tangible assets backing it.
I see all of the downsides of a fiat currency, all of the downsides of a company scrip, but none of the advantages that even specie contains, where at least there's some material involved that has some amount of value in its own accord for bullion and other precious-metals.
Don't get me wro
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Regulation--even a draconian approach like you mention, just legitimizes the scams.
The only thing that can stop the crypto virus is the crypto virus.
Waaaaah! (Score:5, Insightful)
We want unregulated access to fuck around with billions of people's dollars and those big meanies want us to follow some rules to protect our customers!!!
Waaaaah! So mean! So unfair! Why can't we just pull every dirty trick that has been tried and regulated out of the stock market over the last hundred years? We are special! You Neanderthals don't understand! This is -digital-!!! It's on,one and in the cloud and wants to be free! We are the crypto bros; the laws of finance don't apply to us, everything is different now!
Buy my NFT.
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But that's just da man trying to keep the li'l guy from striking it big! They want to keep the money in the hands of their cronies, Bilderbergers, reptiloids and reverse vampires! They don't want you to invest and get rich unless they get to control it and .... Huh? What? No!
WAA! Government sucks, they didn't keep the scammers from stealing my money!!!111!
And by "lone crusade" (Score:5, Insightful)
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I can't imagine that many Coinbase investors are on Coinbase's side at this point anymore. I logged into my account just for haha's, and see that most of the shitcoins that they were giving away as promotional offers back in 2020 have lost over 90% of their initial value.
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Those shitcoins earned through their learn-and-earn program are paid for by whatever centralized entity that create/issue them. They always shit the bed. If earning these are something you find fun, the best thing to do is to sell them immediately, or at the very least, trade them for Bitcoin
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Or simply find a new, legitimate hobby.
SOME REASON (Score:2)
Sounds like... (Score:2, Insightful)
This rhetoric sounds a lot like a GOP/Trump play of playing the victim.
He is correct, but most of you won't admit it (Score:1)
Gensler was grilled by Congress to explain the SEC's prima facie illegally discriminatory posture on Bitcoin and Ethereum. He would not and could not offer any valid legal or technical explanation for why they are officially classified as commodities by the SEC, but everything else (including proof of work or proof of less work coins) is considered a security.
Note that the SEC hasn't actually recused itself from enforcing rules against the Ethereum ecosystem.
Despite, you know, the fact that they legally the
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It's literally "old idea.. but on a computer!" logic. Slashdot at one time was utterly fixated on patent trolls who would take mundane and long-established inventions and concepts who would add as some sort of nominal computational element and declare "It's totally different because it's on a computer!"
I'll wager some of the cryptobros out there were posters on places like Slashdot, and doubtless pounded their fists at the illegitimate claim that just because there's some ICs and an Ethernet cable involved,
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Lmao, who in the flying fuck cares? Blockchains are a legitimate technology that have been taken over by so many shitty, scammy uses that it has become functionally useless for the mainstream. There are legitimate uses to a blockchain, but 99% of current ones are not legitimate. Your rant is meaningless and has absolutely no real point. Cry harder about the taste of your shit sandwich.
"Security" (Score:2)
Let's face it, they really sell an insecurity and therefore should clearly be regulated the Insecurity Exchange Commision!
Oh, dear.... (Score:2)
Mafia boss, on trial for racketeering and protection rackets, says unfair, protection money is just the cost of doing business, and I'm just a businessman....
Hahaha, no. (Score:2)
The EU regulators are just less attention hungry, but not in any way less dangerous. At this time quasi-criminal enterprises like coinbase are just pretending they have a future.
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It's really hard to tell with these guys whether they are sophisticated scam artists, or whether they're members of a cult. If they're the former, they've already cashed in their chips, moved the money off shore, and have a suitcase packed to fly out to Uzbekistan at the first sign of the Feds. The rest probably have drank the orange juice, and will try to argue that rectangles are round, even after they're put behind bars.
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Well, there are both in the mix, like in any good cult or religion: Some leaders that know the whole thing is a scam and profit from it and a lot of useful idiots that believe the crap they are fed.
Shhhhutup! whatcha doing??? (Score:2)
"The SEC is a bit of an outlier here" (Score:2)
Well, of course. The crooks always outnumber the cops.
scammers gonna scam (Score:2)
Yes, a crusade... (Score:2)
crusade? lolz (Score:2)
Multiple fraud cases with crypto, but SEC is on a "crusade"? hahaha, sounds like a crook talking.
Free NFT Baboon picture links for everyone! (Score:2)
We're all going to be millionaires if it weren't for the SEC.