- The SEC dismissed Robinhood’s attempts to register as a crypto broker.
- Earlier, Coinbase also claimed they attempted to register with the agency.
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler rebuked these claims.
Following the SEC’s massive crackdown on Binance and Coinbase, exchanges are firing back. After similar statements from Coinbase, Robinhood claimed that the SEC dismissed their attempts to register as a crypto broker.
On Tuesday, June 6, Dan Gallagher, Chief Legal Compliance and Corporate Affairs Officer, spoke before the US House Agriculture Committee. Despite his efforts, Gallagher, a former SEC commissioner, stated that he couldn’t guide Robinhood into crypto compliance.
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“When Chair Gensler at the SEC in 2021 said, ‘Come in and register,’ we did,” Gallagher said. “We went through a 16-month process with the SEC staff trying to register a special purpose broker-dealer. And then we were pretty summarily told in March that that process was over, and we would not see any fruits of that effort.”
These statements echo similar complaints by Coinbase, one of the largest exchanges in the US. Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, also gave a statement before the House House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday.
“When Coinbase has attempted to do just that, to talk about how we could register as a broker-dealer,” he said, “we’re simply dismissed with no response or any counter-proposal or ideas coming back from the SEC,” said Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer.
On the Flipside
- SEC Chair Gary Gensler has countered these claims. On June 8, 2023, he insisted that crypto-related companies, including Robinhood, know how to register and should comply with existing regulations.
- At the same hearing, Gallagher said that the exchange is considering delisting crypto tokens that the SEC called securities in its lawsuit against Binance.
Why This Matters
Robinhood and Coinbase’s claims could undermine the SEC’s case against the crypto exchanges in the ongoing lawsuit.
Read about Gary Gensler’s rebuttal of the claims by Robinhood, Coinbase
Exchanges Were Warned: SEC Chair Gensler Defends Crypto Crackdown
Read more about why Robinhood may delist a number of crypto assets:
Robinhood May Delist These Crypto Assets After SEC Crackdown
