The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sent shockwaves through the crypto industry in recent days by taking legal action against Binance.US and Coinbase. The news about Binance was not even 24 hours old when the SEC followed up with a lawsuit against Coinbase.
According to the SEC, Coinbase lacked licenses to operate its trading platform. The agency is also taking aim at Coinbase’s staking program, as Bitcoinist reported.
According to the order, Coinbase has 28 days to show cause why the SEC should not order the company to cease and desist from allegedly selling unregistered securities. However, a resolution in that time frame is unlikely, especially because Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has already announced that he is ready to take on the regulator.
Judges Assigned To Coinbase vs. SEC Case
Now it is also determined who will decide on the legal battle. And the judge’s name is no stranger to the crypto world: the case has been assigned to Jennifer Rearden, the same judge presiding over the SEC’s appeal in the Voyager bankruptcy case.
Digital assets lawyer James Murphy, better known on Twitter as “MetaLawMan,” elaborated some other interesting facts about Judge Rearden’s assignment. First of all, Rearden has only been a judge for less than a year.
Furthermore, she was a litigation partner at the prestigious law firm of Gibson Dunn. Remarkably, Binance is taking advice from Gibson Dunn in its litigation with the SEC.
Also interesting is that crypto nemesis no. 1 Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she would oppose Rearden’s confirmation, but the Senate ultimately voted in favor of her by a majority of votes.
Bill Hughes, a lawyer at Ethereum’s ConsenSys, writes via Twitter that Judge Reardon “is basically a centrist” who was nominated by Trump but blocked and renominated and voted through under Biden, thanks in large part to the support of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
According to Hughes, the assignment “could be much, much worse,” yet he cautions against making predictions and too much speculation about Rearden’s short career as a judge and all of her previous rulings. While he also points out the fact that she was formerly a partner at Gibson Dunn, which is representing Binance in its SEC lawsuit, he nevertheless cautions:
NONE of this has any bearing on how she will determine specific issues. It just suggests temperament and open-mindedness. There will be plenty of frauds and charlatans on this infernal site who will foam at the mouth that her past determines everything, and it’s all politics.
Although it is virtually impossible to predict the outcome of the Coinbase v. SEC case based solely on Judge Rearden’s appointment, there are good reasons to believe that there could have been much worse judges.
At the time of writing, the total crypto market cap found itself at the most important support, the 200-day EMA. Since the beginning of May, the 200-day EMA has already served as support three times, preventing a further, deeper fall.
Featured image from Tingey Injury Law Firm / Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com
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