In yet another blow to the cryptocurrency industry, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. The SEC alleges that Coinbase has been operating as a securities exchange without registering as one, making billions of dollars illegally facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities. The SEC specifically claims that Coinbase has been selling at least 13 crypto tokens which the SEC considers to be securities, despite not being a registered exchange. In response, shares of Coinbase were down 20% in pre-market trading on Tuesday and the price of Bitcoin fell about 5% on Monday.
