Coinbase says the SEC has agreed to drop its crypto lawsuit

On Friday morning Coinbase announced that SEC staff have “agreed in principle to dismiss its unlawful enforcement case against Coinbase, subject to Commissioner approval.” CEO Brian Armstrong called it “great news” in a post on X, saying it would be a full dismissal with no fines paid and no business changes while thanking the Trump administration. Under the direction of Gary Gensler, the SEC argued that some crypto assets should be governed under securities laws, which firms like Coinbase opposed, saying it needs new rules.

Neither his post nor the one from Coinbase mentioned the funding contributed to political campaigns in the last election cycle, where CNBC noted Coinbase was one of the top corporate donors. It gave over $75 million to Fairshake and other pro-crypto PACs and made a reported seven-figure donation to Trump’s inaugural committee, and Armstrong reportedly made more than $1.3 million in personal contributions.

As Bloomberg points out, Armstrong referred to this in a podcast interview last year, saying, “To actually be on everyone’s radar and have political power in DC and actually matter, a couple of things were required: One was that we needed to have money – specifically, the industry needed to be giving more to super PACs.” Similarly, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal tweeted last August that “Coinbase’s efforts to support a more free and fair economic future are succeeding,” in reference to a post saying crypto corporations had contributed nearly half of all corporate money spent on the 2024 election cycle.

Now, Armstrong expects to “continue working productively with the SEC on any number of items over the years, just as we do with every agency around the world where we operate” as they await the appointment of Trump’s nominee to run the agency, Paul Atkins.