New hostilities began in November after the collapse of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Over the next few months, the SEC sued a series of crypto lenders and cracked down on investment products sold by popular US exchange Kraken.
At the same time, the heads of several financial regulators issued statements warning banks about the risks of cryptocurrencies.industry supporter labeled The government is carrying out Operation Chokepoint 2.0, alluding to an Obama-era law enforcement campaign to prevent banks from working with certain companies.
“Things have definitely changed a lot since the fall of FTX,” said Perianne Boring, who runs the Digital Chamber of Commerce, a crypto advocacy group. “We have made many good faith efforts at the SEC and also with other policymakers who are now major critics.”
Coinbase is at the center of the regulatory debate as the largest cryptocurrency company in the United States.
Founded in 2012, Coinbase has made a name for itself by touting itself as the most trusted and compliant cryptocurrency exchange. The company went public two years ago, marking a turning point in the industry’s growing role in U.S. commerce.
Since then, Coinbase has repeatedly clashed with federal regulators. After the SEC stopped offering the firm’s popular investment product in September 2021, the firm’s CEO Brian Armstrong said: defendant Agency for “really unnatural behavior”.
In Washington, Coinbase and other major U.S. cryptocurrency companies are fighting back against a tightening regulatory regime by lobbying lawmakers to craft rules tailored to the digital asset industry. But as those efforts fall through, some cryptocurrency companies are starting to look overseas.
At a conference in London in April, Armstrong said: Said The US needed clearer rules governing cryptocurrencies. “If the US doesn’t have this, these companies will be set up in offshore heaven,” he said.
