Coinbase gets Wells notice, SEC sues Tron founder, Ted Cruz joins war on CBDCs

Coinbase gets SEC Wells notice for staking service

US Securities and Exchange Commission is coming after exchange Coinbase, according to disclosure from the company Wednesday saying that it had received a Wells notice which warns of impending legal action.

‘We met with the SEC more than 30 times over nine months, but we were doing all of the talking.’

Coinbase disclosed that the SEC was looking into its Coinbase Earn staking service, as well as its native crypto wallet and exchange proper.

Chief legal officer for Coinbase, Paul Grewal, lamented the move by the SEC, pledging to take the matter to court.

“We met with the SEC more than 30 times over nine months, but we were doing all of the talking,” he said, adding that the SEC had cancelled a meeting in January, telling the exchange the agency “would be shifting back to an enforcement investigation.”

The case is similar to the SEC’s enforcement action against Kraken’s staking service in February that saw the exchange close it programme and pay a $30 million fine.

NOW READ: Crypto industry rails against US regulator after Kraken crackdown: ‘The SEC is extorting everyone’

SEC sues Tron founder Justin Sun

The SEC is also sued Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain protocol, on Wednesday.

The agency also fired off a smattering of accusations against a host of celebrities associated with Sun’s various crypto projects including Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan, and Akon.

Charges against Sun include accusations of fraud and market manipulation, with the SEC filing highlighting “wash trading” techniques used by the company to create artificial price movements.

Meanwhile, the various A-listers named in the suit face illegal touting charges, which relate to the promotion of products or services without disclosing compensation.

NOW READ: Molly White’s ‘watch your profit grow’ DMs show Twitter’s impersonation problem goes beyond scams

EU saw record $5.7bn in venture capital funding in 2022

Crypto startups in the EU seemingly defied market conditions in 2022, with the bloc seeing a record $5.7 billion in venture capital funding throughout the year, according to a report.

The report showed many VC firms lost large amounts making bets on centralised entities such as collapsed exchange FTX.

Instead, money flowed into web3, infrastructure, and blockchain tools.

Some US politicians have recently lamented the regulatory landscape in the country, and warned regulators that American crypto companies would flee to greener pastures such as the EU.

NOW READ: VCs pile into web3 startups in anticipation of $66bn blockchain gaming boom

Ted Cruz joins war against CBDCs in the US

Texas senator Ted Cruz aims to block the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency in the US with a bill introduced Tuesday.

The bill is similar to one proposed at the state level earlier in the week by Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Cruz accused “big government” of attempting to centralise cryptocurrency in the country, citing China’s CBDC as an example of state overreach using digital currencies.

NOW READ: Attacks on CBDCs highlight crypto’s new battleground

France takes aim at crypto influencers with new amendment

Lawmakers in France are taking aim at influencers who promote unlicensed crypto products as they voted in new legislation Wednesday.

The National Assembly’ Economics Committee agreed to an amendment which specifically forbids direct or indirect promotion of digital assets from unlicensed providers.

At present, no crypto companies are technically licensed in France, which makes the amendment an unofficial ban of all crypto promotions by influencers.

NOW READ: Bank meltdown crushes crypto regulation hopes: ‘Crypto in the US is dead’

US Fed hikes rates 25 basic points despite banking crash

The US Federal Reserve hiked the benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4.75%-5% on Wednesday, crushing market watchers’ hope that recent bank collapses would stall aggressive rate increases.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said during Wednesday’s press conference that the rate cuts many hoped for were not part of the central bank’s “base case.”

He also hinted that hikes would continue through 2023 in an effort to get inflation back to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

NOW READ: Europe’s MiCA offers crypto utopia for Americans in a banking crisis. But it’s not that simple

More web3 news from around the web...

FTX bankruptcy estate to claw back $460m from Modulo Capital – CoinDesk

Telegram announces USDT stablecoin payments on Tron Network – Decrypt

Circle confirms chief strategy officer’s account was hacked, airdrop thread is ‘not legitimate’ – The Block