On Tuesday, the leading U.S. crypto exchange Bitcoin, which the agency has agreed should be treated as a commodity like gold or oil, the SEC has maintained that nearly every other digital asset is a security, and therefore under its purview. That also means that because the vast majority of issuers, exchanges, and custodians for cryptocurrencies do not register with the SEC, they are violating securities laws.
The SEC has brought a number of high-profile lawsuits against both top issuers and exchanges, beginning with with a 2020 complaint against Ripple, the company behind the popular XRP cryptocurrency, under Chair Jay Powell. This was followed by a string of enforcement actions led by Powell's controversial successor, Chair Gary Gensler. In these cases, the SEC has argued that companies like Coinbase are breaking key laws by offering unregistered securities like Solana to investors on its platform.
