Coinbase CEO Explains SEC Wells Notice In NFL Terms: 'We're Playing Pickleball' With Football, Soccer Referees

The Securities and Exchange Commission sent a Wells Notice to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global COIN on Wednesday. The agency has preliminarily determined to take enforcement action against Coinbase for allegedly violating securities laws.

What Happened: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responding to a tweet asking to explain the SEC's action in "NFL terms."

"Imagine you've got both football and soccer refs on the field, but we're actually playing pickleball (fastest growing new sport in America). The refs can't really agree on the rules of this new game, and one of them decides to change a call they made back in April 2021," he said.

Coinbase said the SEC is taking action on an undisclosed number of its listed crypto assets, as well as its staking service Coinbase Earn, its institutional platform Coinbase Prime, and its mobile wallet Coinbase Wallet. 

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Imagine you've got both football and soccer refs on the field, but we're actually playing pickleball (fastest growing new sport in America). The refs can't really agree on the rules of this new game, and one of them decides to change a call they made back in April 2021.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 22, 2023

The move follows a new SEC lawsuit levied against celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, and Akon for allegedly promoting the Tron ecosystem and selling Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent Token (BTT) without any disclosure to the public.

Coinbase is a crypto exchange that allows the trading of digital assets such as Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD.

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $27,401, down 2.60% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro. Shares of COIN dropped 8% in the extended session Wednesday, trading at $77.14.

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