The SEC’s Escalating Battle Against Crypto

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Chainalysis and FTX US. On today’s episode, NLW catches listeners up on the criminal charges filed against a former Coinbase employee and two of his associates last week around insider trading. The charges come from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and it is the SEC’s charges that have the biggest implications. Nine of the tokens traded are being labeled by the SEC as securities, but the token issuers are not being given a chance to defend themselves. In a wildly unusual breach of protocol, a commissioner from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused the SEC of “regulation by enforcement” in a public press release response. NLW breaks down the escalation on the part of the SEC. - Nexo is a security-first platform where you can buy, exchange and borrow against your crypto. The company safeguards your crypto by relying on five key fundamentals including real-time auditing and insurance on custodial assets. Learn more at nexo.io. - Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions and insurance and cybersecurity companies. Our data powers investigation, compliance and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com. - FTX US is the safe, regulated way to buy Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and other digital assets. Trade crypto with up to 85% lower fees than top competitors and trade ETH and SOL NFTs with no gas fees and subsidized gas on withdrawals. Sign up at FTX.US today. - “The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsors is “The Now” by Aaron Sprinkle. Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.2	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:14.8	The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, chain aliasis, and FtX, and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.
0:22.8	What's going on, guys? It is Monday, July 25th, and today we are talking about a major
0:27.6	escalation from the SEC. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,
0:32.8	please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dig deeper into
0:37.0	the conversation, come join us in the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to
0:41.7	bit.ly.com slash breakdown pod. Lastly, a disclosure as always. In addition to them being a
0:47.3	sponsor of the show, I also work with FTX. All right, guys, I am back here as usual. I hope you have enjoyed the midsummer macro series.
0:57.7	The responses seemed really positive. It seems like these are topics and guests that you guys
1:01.8	really like. Let me know if that's the case. Maybe there are topics that you want to hear more about
1:06.4	or things that I didn't have a chance to cover that you'd like to hear more of. And I will see
1:10.1	what we can do about getting those things covered. Now, you will also probably notice that I do not
1:15.9	sound my normal self. I came back from traveling with COVID, as is want to happen, but we
1:22.1	are powering through. There was a ton of stuff happening in this industry last week. Frankly, it was kind of a brutal one to be away from the microphone for.
1:31.6	But I'm going to go back to the stories that I think have the longest legs here. And today, we are going to focus on the insider trading accusations brought by the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission last week.
1:43.1	So let's start with the basics.
1:45.7	Last Thursday, the Department of Justice brought criminal charges against former Coinbase
1:49.3	product manager Isan Wahi and two associates in relation to insider trading.
1:54.1	The trio are accused of trading at least 14 small-cap tokens using their knowledge of imminent
1:58.8	listings on Coinbase.
2:02.0	This will remind you,
	...

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