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Court Orders SEC to Respond to Coinbase Lawsuit

Plus forthcoming Voyager distribution and more memecoin madness

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
May 05, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Friday May 5, 2023

5. Voyager could distribute within weeks

The endless saga of Voyager Digital could be coming to a close soon. After the Binance deal was scuttled (thanks US Gov’t!) creditors advocated for a direct liquidation and distribution plan. It appears that Voyager has agreed in principle, giving some hope that creditors could see their assets released within the month.

4. Frog Coin frenzy

PEPE was back at the center of attention yesterday. Exchange listings —> leveraged trading —> $11m in short liquidations —> PEPE up 80% —> market cap > $800m. Many parts of crypto twitter are shaking with pearl-clutching rage, because aren’t we better than this memecoin chicanery now? Spoiler alert: we will never be better than memecoin chicanery.

3. No Digital Assets definition

We almost got a definition of “digital assets” from the SEC, but alas. The regulator has removed the definition from a forthcoming rule about Private Fund disclosures, which would have been the first official statement on how the regulator defines the asset class. Nah, though, better we just keep guessing about regulations.

2. Strong results from Coinbase

Coinbase reported quarterly earnings with a 22% revenue bump. Earnings came in at $284M, way exceeding the forecast loss of $36M. Trading volume was still depressed but staking revenue and interest income from stablecoin holdings made up for it. In a letter to shareholders Coinbase said it was “fully prepared to defend ourselves and advocate for the entire crypto industry if necessary”. Coinbase stock rallied as much at 9% after hours.

1. SEC ordered to Respond

Speaking of Coinbase defending, a Federal Court has ordered the SEC to respond to the Coinbase lawsuit within 10 days after being sued for their lack of response to a rulemaking petition. While this is just a routine timetabling order, it brings the industry one step closer to hearing first hand why the SEC has refused to issue guidelines around why it considers Crypto assets to be securities.

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Thanks for reading -NLW