Coinbase SEC Probe Triggers More Pain for Crypto
The pain continues as Coinbase's 20% decline leads Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana's SOl into negative territory.
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is plunging on Tuesday alongside sharp declines for cryptocurrencies following a Monday night report that the SEC is investigating the company for allowing Americans to trade in tokens that should have been registered as securities.
“Coinbase was considered one of the better run crypto companies that tried to obey the rules and work with the regulatory bodies,” Edward Moya, senior markets analyst at Oanda said in a note Tuesday. “The risk of tougher regulation has been a constant headache for crypto and it seems a couple tough rulings could cripple a good portion of the cryptoverse," he added. "If some cryptos are deemed securities that would make the life of so many brokerages so much harder."
After closing the Monday session at $265.86, MicroStrategy stock was down almost 7% in premarket trades Tuesday and down 9.94% to $239.42 at the time of writing.
The sharp decline followed the news that Jefferies analyst Brent Thill downgraded the software analytics firm to "Underperform" from "Hold."
While Coinbase is hardest hit, with a 20% drop late on Tuesday afternoon, related players like MicroStrategy (MSTR), Marathon Digital (MARA) are also suffering sizable declines of roughly 11%.