Professor Warns SEC That Its Move Against Coinbase Is a ‘Serious Mistake’
A former advisor to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned that the agency would be making a “serious mistake” if it proceeds with a probe into Coinbase and other major crypto exchanges.
As reported, the SEC is reportedly set to move ahead with an investigation into Coinbase over the listing of cryptoassets that it claims classify as unregistered securities.
And the exchange appears to have an ally in J.W. Verret, an Associate Professor of Law specializing in securities and finance at the Antonin Scalia Law School.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Verret, who recently served on an advisory committee for the SEC, wrote that the commission would be essentially shooting itself in the foot if it went ahead with what it reportedly wants to do.
Verret wrote:
“The SEC’s position – that most tokens are securities and must register or face enforcement – is obtuse. It’s also an approach that works to the benefit of the scammers and hucksters who have abused the crypto space.”
He claimed that innovation required a “rethinking of federal securities law” – law that has been in place since the 1930s. The professor added that the “facets” of crypto that “would shock the drafters of the 1933 Securities Act” – rendering the legislation unfit for the challenges of the Digital Age.
He justified his stance by explaining that even if crypto developers “wanted to register their projects with the SEC, as traditional public companies are required to, they couldn’t.”
Verret pointed out that crypto projects generally do not have a board, CEO, or a chief financial officer who could “file the requisite paperwork with the commission.” Nor, he added, “do they have proxy voting of shares by mail, which the
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