The third-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US Kraken has been actively seeking mediation and talks with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Kraken’s chief lawyer, Marco Santori has said that the regulating authority is open to talks.
It seems the top crypto exchanges and crypto-focused firms have joined forces to confront SEC after they threatened to sue Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, Kraken chief legal officer Marco Santori said: “You’re living in a fantasy world if you don’t believe that this industry is going to face heavier, more Wall Street-like regulation from governments in the U.S. and abroad.”
Earlier last week, the US SEC threatened to sue Coinbase for its new crypto yield program which it claims is a security offering. Following the SEC’s tough stance, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, took to Twitter lashing out against the SEC. He also called for a joint resistance against SEC’s arbitrary and out of the line behaviour bullying crypto exchanges.
Coinbase has however since said that they will not be launching the new program. Explaining what’s going on Santori said, “I’ve certainly followed Brian’s tweets, and I’ll say that look, you’re just not being honest with yourself about the crypto community if a little bit of you doesn’t think he’s saying what a lot of people are thinking.”
While avoiding to target the SEC, Kraken chief lawyer also said: “I can’t support that kind of approach with regulators. It’s never been successful historically, and from our experience, we’ve found the SEC to be open to discussion.”
