The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued coinbase a Wells notice, warning the company that it identified potential violations of U.S. securities law. The SEC futher alleged that the company’s staking products constitute unregistered securities.
In regard to this, coinbase mentioned that the issue is “an undefined portion of our listed digital assets, our staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet.” Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal shared a copy of the letter, the company received from the SEC, complaining that“Over the past 9 months, CB has met with the SEC more than 30 times, sharing details of our business to build a path to registration. During this time, the SEC hasn’t given basically 0 feedback on what to change, or how to register. Instead, today we received a Wells notice.”
In a blog post on Wednesday afternoon, Grewal wrote that the Wells Notice “does not provide a lot of information for us to respond to. The SEC staff told us they have identified potential violations of securities law, but little more.”
However , the company’s blog post tells customers and investors that “Rest assured, Coinbase products and services continue to operate as usual today’s news does not require any changes to our current products or services.”