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Cryptocurrency prices were slightly higher on Tuesday after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto services provider Coinbase.
Bitcoin climbed more than 1% to $25,891.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it briefly fell to $25,368.57, its lowest level since March. Ether rose 1% to $1,826.64.
On Tuesday, the SEC filed a lawsuit in New York federal court alleging that Coinbase acted as an unregistered broker and exchange. The agency asked that the company be “permanently restrained and enjoined” from continuing to do so.
“If there is real value in these crypto tokens, then compliance will build trust and the business model can change,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said Tuesday in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “What we’re doing at the SEC is supporting innovation because capital markets really don’t work.”
“There is a lot of work to be done here for the crypto field, but we are willing to work to bring them into line,” he added.
The complaint lists 13 crypto assets on Coinbase that could be considered “crypto asset securities” by the regulator, including popular coins Solana (SOL) and polygons MATIC token, which fell by more than 3% and 5% respectively on Tuesday. of Cardano ADA the token fell by 2.8%.
The news came a day after the SEC alleged that Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, and its co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, violated securities laws. Cryptocurrency prices fell on Monday to their lowest levels since March after the complaint against Binance.
US regulators are cracking down on crypto businesses. Since January, the SEC has accused Kraken, Genesis and Gemini Trust of offering unregistered securities to investors.
It also issued a Wells Notice to Coinbase earlier this year, warning the company of potential securities charges.
Matt Hogan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, called the lawsuit against Coinbase “an important event that investors can look forward to,” speaking to CNBC on Monday night.
“The [SEC’s] the next step in the direction of Coinbase is probably a signal that we have passed this period of regulatory dark clouds, or at least we have reached the end of it,” he said.