Polygon, ex-Meta executives defend Coinbase following SEC Wells notice

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Sev­er­al notable cryp­tocur­ren­cy indus­try fig­ures have come to the defense of Coin­base fol­low­ing the company’s receipt of a Wells notice.

Polygon comes to the defense of Coinbase

The Wells notice received by Coin­base indi­cates that the U.S. Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion like­ly intends to file charges against the exchange.

In response, Poly­gon Labs pres­i­dent Ryan Watt said in a March 23 tweet that the cryp­to indus­try “must stand behind Coin­base.” He not­ed that though Coin­base has gained the trust of the pub­lic, reg­u­la­tors and politi­cians “have erod­ed that trust.”

Watt fur­ther not­ed that many major com­pa­nies such as Star­bucks, Meta, and Nike have made use of pub­lic blockchains such as Poly­gon. He said that these major part­ner­ships pro­vide count­less eco­nom­ic and job oppor­tu­ni­ties and warned that com­pa­nies will instead work with blockchain firms over­seas if reg­u­la­tors clamp down on the industry.

Polygon’s native token (MATIC) is list­ed on Coinbase.

David Marcus sides with Coinbase

David Mar­cus, for­mer head of Meta’s cryp­to projects, acknowl­edged Coinbase’s engage­ment with reg­u­la­tors and its will­ing­ness to “play by the rules.” He lament­ed that coop­er­a­tive com­pa­nies are treat­ed more harsh­ly by reg­u­la­tors than those that com­mit fraud, not­ing that the now-col­lapsed FTX exchange did not expe­ri­ence reg­u­la­tions so strict.

Like Coin­base, Meta’s own Diem cryp­tocur­ren­cy project was affect­ed by over­reg­u­la­tion. This was one fac­tor that led Diem to shut down in Jan­u­ary 2022.

Other industry leaders comment

Jake Chervin­sky, Chief Pol­i­cy Offi­cer of the Blockchain Asso­ci­a­tion, also acknowl­edged that Coin­base spent an “extra­or­di­nary amount” of resources work­ing with the SEC. The Blockchain Asso­ci­a­tion said it “stands in sup­port” of Coinbase.

Else­where, Ryan Selkis, CEO of cryp­to research firm Mes­sari, sent a let­ter to mem­bers of Con­gress ask­ing for fair reg­u­la­tion for the cryp­to indus­try. Though his let­ter does not men­tion Coin­base direct­ly, it was seem­ing­ly prompt­ed by the Coin­base Wells notice as it was com­posed on the same day. It was lat­er re-tweet­ed by Coin­base CEO Bri­an Armstrong.

Justin Slaugh­ter, Pol­i­cy Direc­tor of the cryp­to-focused VC firm Par­a­digm, also com­ment­ed on the sit­u­a­tion. Slaugh­ter pre­vi­ous­ly held posi­tions with the U.S. SEC and CFTC and sug­gest­ed that some indi­vid­u­als in gov­ern­ment are pri­vate­ly sym­pa­thet­ic to Coinbase.

Though the SEC has not yet filed charges against Coin­base, the com­pa­ny intends to fight the SEC in court if charges are indeed filed. If and when that hap­pens, oth­er cryp­to com­pa­nies and lead­ers will like­ly come to Coinbase’s side.



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