Coinbase – Better Them Than Me…
Courtesy of Howard Lindzon
Last week it seemed nothing could stop crypto.
Life was grand.
Today, I woke to this tweet from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong:
Coinbase has received a ‘Wells Notice‘…
A “Wells Notice” is a letter sent by a securities regulator to a prospective respondent, notifying him of the substance of charges that the regulator intends to bring against the respondent, and affording the respondent with the opportunity to submit a written statement to the ultimate decision maker.
Now, usually it is the SEC that uses terms like ‘sketchy’.
As we say these days on social media …’shots fired’!
I sensed the SEC and Gensler have been gearing up for contact based on Gensler’s social media push. This weekend I wrote here:
The SEC has been quiet for what seems like 1,000 years. Gary Gensler the new head of SEC and of course former Goldman Sachs partner won’t shut up. He has a Twitter account and is having a lovely time sharing all his media appearances. I thought his Twitter account was a good idea at first because it showed he might be listening. Alas, it is just to push his confusing agenda.
While Gensler is on his media tour moving markets looking to help Goldman Sachs, the WSJ has a story about ‘The Social Media Stars Who Move Markets‘.
You can read the rest of Brian’s Twitter rant/plea/thread here.
I looked up the SEC and ‘what it is they do’:
The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a three-part mission: Protect investors. Maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets. Facilitate capital formation.
With Gensler enjoying TV and Twitter, the definition above could [be] just about anything in a world where 100 million new traders and investors have apps and crypto markets are open 24/7.
Prepare for a lot more volatility if you own brokerage and crypto exchanges.
