Brian Armstrong says Coinbase spent $50M fighting SEC lawsuit — and beat it

Coinbase on Friday said the SEC has agreed to drop the lawsuit against the company with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again. The move, which is still subject to the approval of the SEC’s Commissioners, is yet another signal that the Trump administration plans to be more friendly to crypto than the SEC was under former leader Gary Gensler. The SEC’s lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleged that crypto assets were securities and that Coinbase was operating as “an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.” Coinbase fought back, arguing, in part, that the SEC hadn’t established clear enough rules concerning crypto in order to sue over breaking them. “I remember in 2023, a lot of people were advising on this and they were saying, ‘Do not engage in litigation with the SEC; it’s going to cost you tens of millions of dollars,’” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a video he posted on X on Friday announcing that the suit was being dropped. In the video, Armstro ... Read full article.