- The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly asked Coinbase to only list Bitcoin.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the pressure left it no choice but to fight it out in court.
- SEC chair Gary Gensler has previously noted that almost every other cryptocurrency was a security.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wanted it to delist every other cryptocurrency and only offer Bitcoin (BTC).
A report the Financial Times published on Monday claims that this happened before the regulator sued the US-based cryptocurrency exchange in June. Per the FT report, Armstrong saiys that the SEC’s demands left Coinbase with no other option but to defend itself in court.
SEC’s plans could have “ended” crypto in the US
When the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase in early June, complaints included the offering of unregistered securities.
The Commission named several altcoins listed on Coinbase as unregistered securities, with those singled out being the likes of Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC).
“We really didn’t have a choice at that point. Delisting every asset other than bitcoin, which by the way is not what the law says, would have essentially meant the end of the crypto industry in the US. It kind of made it an easy choice … ‘let’s go to court and find out what the court says’,” Armstrong said according to details in the FT report published on Monday.
The SEC also filed a similar lawsuit against Binance in June, part of a recent regulatory crackdown that elicited sharp criticism against the agency and its Chair, Gary Gensler.
While Coinbase has vowed to battle SEC’s allegations in court, the Financial Times has quoted the government agency as noting that no such requests have been made by the securities watchdog. Gensler has however noted on numerous occasions that most crypto tokens were securities.
Meanwhile, the regulator suffered a noticeable loss earlier this month when a judge ruled in favour of the XRP creator Ripple Labs. Coinbase, which had delisted XRP, announced the relisting of the altcoin following the ruling that effectively declared it not a security.
