Forbes: Every US crypto exchange under SEC scrutiny

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun examining the activities of every cryptocurrency exchange registered in the country. Forbes reported this, citing an aide to Senator Cynthia Lummis.

According to him, the regulator’s investigation into regulator’s investigation into Coinbase’s operations is only the tip of the iceberg. On other Bitcoin exchanges, the process is at various stages. According to CoinGecko, 40 platforms are registered in the United States.

An unnamed senior official at one of the companies confirmed that the agency would file a suit against some bodies. He also did not rule out that the status of a security could be assigned to forks of Bitcoin, such as Litecoin.

The SEC did not respond to journalists’ requests.

The senator’s aide stressed that the Gary Gensler-led agency urgently wants to resolve its dispute with the CFTC over the mandate to oversee crypto companies. If the agencies fail to resolve this matter on their own, Congress may intervene, which favours the Rostin Benham-led agency, he added.

In an interview, a member of Lummis’s staff indicated that the conversation had not been particularly productive.

The situation was further intensified by the SEC’s case against the former Coinbase employee and his associates over insider trading. The regulator classified 9 of the 25 cryptocurrencies used by the defendants in their operations as securities.

Later, Gary Gensler said that methods for registering digital assets as investment contracts were being developed and that efforts to register crypto trading platforms were intensifying. In May, the official warned of possible prosecution of unregistered Bitcoin exchanges.

The CFTC criticised the SEC’s case against the former Coinbase employee.

In July, a group of senators introduced the Digital Goods Consumer-Protection Act. It would require firms offering trading in digital assets to register with the CFTC.

The head of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, noted that the bill complements previous initiatives by Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Ro Khanna. It was also supported by Benham.

A Forbes source assessed the odds of passage of each bill before year-end at less than 50%.

The CFTC announced the creation of the Office of Technology Innovations, which will regulate the industry.

Earlier, Binance.US delisted the AMP token due to the SEC’s case against Coinbase.

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