Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Wednesday, September 8th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, Coinbase says the SEC threatened to sue it over a crypto lending product, the fallout from yesterday's

Bitcoin launch in El Salvador, Ford hires away one of the key executives from the

Apple Car project, Microsoft and PayPal makes some interesting acquisitions, and hey, some new laptops.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong last night said that the SEC threatened to sue

Coinbase over its yet to be launched LEND program even though some discussions about the product had been ongoing with the

SEC for almost six months, quoting the block. The firm, which went public on the

NASDAQ Stock Exchange in April, received a subpoena by the SEC less than three months after it

announced to the market a product dubbed Lend that would allow users the

opportunity to earn yields on deposits of USDC, the stable coin on its platform.

That's a much juicier yield than what is offered by consumer banks,

which provide less than a basis point for savings accounts.

Armstrong said that the exchange contacted the

SEC about its yield product and the SEC told coin-based that the offering is a

security but gave no guidance on the compliance with existing laws. In a

tweet Armstrong added quote quote, they refuse to

tell us why they think it's a security and instead subpoena a bunch of records

from us. We comply. Demand testimony from our employees. We comply and then tell us

they will be suing us if we proceed to

launch with zero explanation as to why."

According to Armstrong, the SEC, quote, refused to meet with the chief executive during a

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