SEC official warns crypto and DeFi exchanges

The SEC official believes that many other crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms are violating the law, not just Coinbase and Binance.

Statement from SEC official
David Hirsch, head of the SEC's cybercrime and cryptoassets division, has just made a tough statement targeting the cryptocurrency industry. Accordingly, the commission is constantly observing DeFi exchanges and projects that it considers to be in violation of securities laws, similar to Coinbase and Binance.

Speaking at the Securities Enforcement Forum in Chicago, David Hirsch emphasized that the sanctions still apply to more than two entities, and are not limited to these two cases.

The SEC's concerns now extend to brokers, dealers, clearing agencies, or any other party that impinges on the SEC's jurisdiction. In addition, DeFi projects will not escape the attention of the enforcement department.

Hirsch asserts:

“We will continue to investigate, be active in the space, and the DeFi label is not something that prevents us from continuing our work.
Legal disputes are ongoing
As Coin68 reported, the US Securities Commission filed consecutive lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance only in June 2023. In parallel, there was a 3-year legal dispute with Ripple Labs. Recently, the committee also filed for the first time two lawsuits targeting the NFT segment Impact Theory, Stoner Cats.

There is still no final decision on the above lawsuits. However, it cannot be ruled out that the SEC will lose to organizations that are considered the "fronts" of the cryptocurrency industry. Evidence is the lawsuits with Grayscale Investments (successfully challenged the proposed Bitcoin ETF conversion) and Ripple (the judge declared XRP is not an investment contract). These partial victories set a legal precedent for other crypto projects being accused by the SEC to have further arguments against the commission.