“But the SEC let us go public” and other flawed arguments in Coinbase's defense
I stopped reading the article when it started comparing cryptocurrency exchanges to the business of selling heroin. No matter your opinion on the issue, that's just alarmist nonsense.<p>I agree that it's reasonable to apply existing securities laws to cryptocurrency, and I agree that "but they let us go public" is a bad argument, but Gensler's SEC has also been intentionally obtuse about how those securities laws should apply to cryptocurrency. It's not a company's job to go to court over ambiguous regulations, it's the SEC's job to actually research what they are regulating and put out a comprehensive framework for how they make their regulatory determinations, because the Howey Test is so subjective that it's leaving companies guessing on the cutting edge of public programmable assets.<p>Look at the UK's upcoming crypto bills for an example of commonsense regulation that protects consumers and is in everyone's best interest. The contrast between it and the US's approach is striking.