Bulletins

Coinbase reportedly wants Congress to keep the SEC out of crypto

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong

Coinbase wants Congress to created separate regulator for digital assets.

Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Coinbase wants Congress to prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission from regulating crypto and turn the job over to a new body, according to a new report.

The crypto marketplace wants Congress to create a special regulator for digital assets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an internal Coinbase policy document.

Coinbase is planning to make its proposals for crypto regulation public, the report said. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Coinbase has been engaged in a public dispute with the SEC under Chair Gary Gensler, who has argued that some crypto currencies should be considered securities and should be covered by investor-protection laws.

Last month, Coinbase cancelled a planned lending feature, after the SEC threatened to sue the company to block the rollout.

Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel ( @benpimentel) covers crypto and fintech from San Francisco. He has reported on many of the biggest tech stories over the past 20 years for the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch and Business Insider, from the dot-com crash, the rise of cloud computing, social networking and AI to the impact of the Great Recession and the COVID crisis on Silicon Valley and beyond. He can be reached at bpimentel@protocol.com or via Google Voice at (925) 307-9342.

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