SEC, 수요일에 바쁘게 활동 – Coinbase에 웰스 통지 발행, Tron, 저스틴 선 및 여러 유명인에게 혐의 제기

Coinbase, 미국 최대 암호화폐 거래소는 발표했다 수요일에 미국 증권거래위원회(SEC)로부터 디지털 자산, 스테이킹 서비스 및 지갑 제품의 특정되지 않은 부분에 대해 “Wells Notice”를 받았다고.

이는 집행 조치를 위한 권고일 뿐이며, 정식 고발이나 소송은 아니다. Coinbase의 제품 및 서비스는 계속해서 평소와 같이 운영되고 있다고, 상장된 암호화폐 기업은 확신했다.

Coinbase에 따르면, SEC는 대응할 만한 정보를 거의 제공하지 않았으며, 플랫폼 내 어떤 자산이 증권일 수 있는지 식별하는 것을 거부했다. SEC의 조치는 Coinbase에게 놀라움을 안겨주었는데, Coinbase는 등록에 관한 여러 제안을 SEC에 제출했지만 회신을 받지 못했기 때문이다.

Coinbase는 자사 사업에 자신감을 가지고 있으며, 규칙 제정 및 입법이 암호화폐 산업의 법을 정의하는 데 더 나은 도구라고 믿는다. 그러나 법정에서 명확성을 얻을 기회를 환영한다.

뉴스에 대한 반응으로, 나스닥에 상장된 Coinbase(COIN)의 주가는 장외 거래 시간에 약 13% 하락해 $67.20에 거래되었다. 연초 대비 116% 이상 상승했지만, 2021년 4월 사상 최고가(ATH) 대비 84% 이상 하락한 상태이다.

미국 SEC가 상장된 Coinbase를 고소하겠다는 최신 위협은 암호화폐 부문에 대한 규제 압력을 강화했다. SEC의 잠재적 집행 조치는 Coinbase의 현물 시장뿐만 아니라 고객에게 높은 수익을 제공하는 Earn, Prime 및 Wallet 제품 등 다양한 사업 영역과 관련이 있다.

특히 SEC는 Coinbase Earn과 같은 스테이킹 서비스가 등록되지 않았다는 점을 면밀히 조사하고 있다. 최근 Kraken은 미국 내 암호화폐 스테이킹 서비스를 종료하고 프로그램 미등록에 대한 SEC 제재를 해결하기 위해 3천만 달러를 벌금으로 지급하기로 합의했다.

The increased regulatory focus on the crypto industry comes in the wake of the FTX implosion late last year.

Coinbase의 방어

In its announcement, Coinbase provided a detailed account of its attempt to reach out to the SEC to no effect.

The exchange stated that they tried to engage with the SEC regarding a potential resolution involving registering a portion of their business with the agency. And in response, the SEC asked them to propose two different registration models, which they did, but did not receive any feedback, said the exchange.

Despite meeting with the SEC more than 30 times over nine months, it said they did not receive any feedback and were doing all the talking. Then in 2023년 1월, the SEC canceled a scheduled meeting and shifted back to an enforcement investigation.

Coinbase noted that the investigation is still in its early stages, and the SEC has not raised any specific concerns about a single asset on their platform. The Wells Notice is unusual since Coinbase’s staking and exchange services had largely remained unchanged since 2021, when the SEC reviewed their S-1 and allowed them to become a public company, noted Coinbase.

The company expressed concern about the lack of regulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency industry in the United States, calling The SEC’s approach to regulation enforcement-oriented rather than developing a clear regulatory framework.

Coinbase has attempted to engage with the SEC by proposing registration models and petitioning for rulemaking but has received little feedback or guidance.

The announcement also references a recent ruling in the Voyager case, in which a federal bankruptcy judge questioned the SEC’s inconsistent positions on cryptocurrencies and lack of guidance to the industry.

The announcement notes that conflicting statements from regulators, such as the recent disagreement between the SEC and CFTC on which agency should regulate different aspects of crypto, create further uncertainty and make it difficult for industry participants to understand how to comply with regulations.

Coinbase further argues that threatening enforcement actions against trusted public companies like itself without clear guidance or regulatory framework makes little sense and that the issue of regulating non-securities should be left to Congress to decide.

According to Coinbase, they do not list securities or offer products that are considered securities to their customers in the first place.

Coinbase has a strict process to review and analyze each digital asset before making it available on their exchange, it said, adding: this process includes assessing whether the asset could be considered a security and also takes into account regulatory compliance and information security aspects of the asset. As a result, over 90% of reviewed assets are ultimately rejected because they do not meet Coinbase’s standards.

Coinbase has also stated that their staking services are not considered securities under any legal standard, including the Howey test, which determines whether a product is an investment contract. Coinbase had presented its staking services to the SEC in 2019 and twice more in 2020 but did not receive any concerns from the SEC about its staking services until the recent investigation.

As for Coinbase Wallet, it is not an exchange, broker, or centralized platform but rather a technology, said the company on Wednesday. Coinbase believes that the misunderstanding of crypto products, assets, and services is an example of the need for comprehensive crypto regulation in the US that understands the technology.

The message from Coinbase is clear: they seek clear guidance from regulators on how to comply with the rules and are willing to register their business if given a clear path to do so. They believe that the current approach of the SEC, which is to regulate by enforcement only, is unfair and threatens the good actors in the crypto industry.

Coinbase asserts that they have always complied with the law and remain confident in the legality of its assets and services. They welcome a legal process to clarify and demonstrate that the SEC has not been fair or reasonable in its engagement with the crypto industry.

Despite these challenges, Coinbase is committed to advancing its mission of creating more economic freedom and opportunity around the world by building trusted products and services, said the exchange.

SEC, 저스틴 선, BTT, TRX 및 유명인들을 상대로 소송 제기

Coinbase is not the only one targeted by the SEC. Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the agency announced charges against Justin Sun and three of his companies — Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent) for violating securities laws.

The SEC alleges that Sun and his companies orchestrated a scheme to pay celebrities to promote TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation while fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading. The charges serve as a warning to investors about the risks associated with companies that do not commit to proper disclosure.

Besides Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), the SEC charged eight celebrities for illegally promoting these crypto asset securities.

The eight celebrities charged in the complaint include actress Lindsay Lohan, social media personality Jake Paul, rappers Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez) and Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum), Aliaune Thiam (Akon), Shaffer Smith (Ne‑Yo), Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), and Austin Mahone.

With the exception of Soulja Boy and singer Austin Mahone, the celebrities agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 in interest and penalties to settle the charges without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Sun and his affiliated companies unlawfully offered and sold TRX and BTT as investments through unregistered “bounty programs.”

These programs incentivized participants to promote the tokens on social media, join and recruit others to Tron‑affiliated Telegram and Discord channels, and create BitTorrent accounts in exchange for TRX and BTT distributions.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that Sun, along with BitTorrent Foundation and Rainberry, offered and sold BTT through unregistered monthly airdrops to investors, including those in the US, who purchased and held TRX in their wallets or on participating crypto exchanges.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler emphasized the importance of proper disclosure for companies operating in the crypto industry. “This case demonstrates again the high‑risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure,” said Gensler.

According to the SEC’s statement, Sun and his companies not only victimized US investors with their unregistered offers and sales, profiting in the millions, but they also orchestrated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create a false impression of TRX’s trading activity.

Allegedly, Sun directed his staff to conduct over 600,000 wash trades of TRX daily between two crypto asset trading platform accounts he owned, with a wash trading volume ranging from 4.5 million to 7.4 million TRX. As per the complaint, Sun sold TRX on the secondary market, pocketing $31 million in illegal proceeds from the unregistered sales of the token.

“Sun and others used an age‑old playbook to mislead and harm investors by first offering securities without complying with registration and disclosure requirements and then manipulating the market for those very securities,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “While we’re neutral about the technologies at issue, we’re anything but neutral when it comes to investor protection,” he added.

In his response to the SEC’s charges, Sun took to Twitter early on Thursday to state that the regulatory framework for digital assets in the US is still in its “infancy” and needs further refinement. He further expressed his company’s willingness to work with governments and regulatory bodies worldwide to establish transparent guidelines for regulating the cryptocurrency industry.

Meanwhile, several tokens linked to Justin Sun, including TRX, HT, JST, and SUN, fell sharply. The $5.7 billion market cap token, TRX, dropped 7.6% in the past 24 hours to now trade at $0.06, down 73% from its ATH hit in 2018.