Trump’s Crypto Warm-Up: Coinbase Gets Off SEC Lawsuit With Little Blood

The largest US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the company. The announcement was made on the official Coinbase blog. The move, which still needs to be approved by the SEC, is another signal that the administration of US President Donald Trump will be more friendly to the crypto industry than it was under the previous head of state.

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Recall that in 2023, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase. In it, the cryptocurrency platform was accused of operating without registering as an exchange, broker, and clearing agency, as well as selling securities without registering their offering. During the proceedings, Coinbase argued that the SEC did not establish clear enough rules regarding cryptocurrencies to bring claims for violating them.

«“I remember in 2023, a lot of people were giving advice on this and saying, ‘Don’t get into this SEC lawsuit, it’s going to cost you tens of millions of dollars.’ Not many other companies had the deep pockets that we did. We ended up having to spend $50 million defending ourselves in this case,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a video he posted on social media platform X. Armstrong said he kept fighting because he believed he could save the crypto industry in America.

A Coinbase representative clarified that the $50 million in expenses announced by Armstrong includes only legal costs.