(Reuters) – Coinbase Global’s CEO Brian Armstrong said on Wednesday that the crypto exchange has a long history of being transparent with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Armstrong was speaking in an interview with CNBC, a day after the company was sued by the U.S. securities regulator on allegations it failed to register as an exchange.
“The SEC allowed us to become a public company … so, its not great to have a regulator come back and say, actually, we changed our mind,” Armstrong said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities that should have been registered, including tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polygon.
Coinbase shares rebounded on Wednesday to rise nearly 1% to $52.03.
The stock has declined about 20% since the SEC sued Coinbase and rival Binance alleging securities law violations, wiping roughly $3 billion from Coinbase’s market value.
Short sellers have raked in roughly $463 million in paper profits betting against Coinbase over the past two sessions, according to data from analytics firm Ortex.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
