The SEC’s Escalating Battle Against Crypto

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Chainalysis and FTX US.

On today’s episode, NLW catches listeners up on the criminal charges filed against a former Coinbase employee and two of his associates last week around insider trading. The charges come from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and it is the SEC’s charges that have the biggest implications. Nine of the tokens traded are being labeled by the SEC as securities, but the token issuers are not being given a chance to defend themselves. In a wildly unusual breach of protocol, a commissioner from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused the SEC of “regulation by enforcement” in a public press release response. NLW breaks down the escalation on the part of the SEC.

See also: SEC Will Need to Prove Tokens Are Securities in Coinbase Insider-Trading Case, Legal Expert Says

“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsors is “The Now” by Aaron Sprinkle. Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.