By David Goldman and Robert Ilich, CNN

(CNN) — Coinbase, America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said Friday that the Trump administration has agreed to drop a major lawsuit that would have broad ramifications for the crypto industry. It comes as the new Trump administration has promised to deregulate digital currencies like bitcoin.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2023 sued Coinbase for allegedly acting as an unregistered broker. The SEC filed a similar suit against overseas rival Binance that month, too – and the company and regulator last week agreed to pause legal proceedings in that case.

In its lawsuit, the SEC had claimed Coinbase unlawfully made billions of dollars by acting as an exchange, broker, and clearing agency “without having registered any of those functions with the Commission as required by law.”

Coinbase said the SEC is expected to approve the dismissal of its litigation next week, and the regulator would not charge the company any fees or fines.

The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s nominee for SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, is expected to regulate crypto with a significantly lighter touch than Gary Gensler, who led the commission under the Biden administration. Although Trump previously dismissed crypto as a scam, the president reversed his position during the campaign and vowed to embrace it. On his third day in office, Trump signed an executive action aimed at easing up on crypto regulations.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong praised the SEC’s move to drop its lawsuit in a post on X Friday, saying its fight against the regulator was aimed at preserving the rights of the industry as a whole – not just the company’s.

“Caving to their demands could have killed the crypto industry in America,” Armstrong said. “If we had caved, it would have dramatically limited the scope of which crypto assets were allowed in the US, and pushed the industry further offshore, into the shadows.”

It’s a claim Armstrong had made before, and former President Joe Biden’s SEC at the time pushed back, saying it was not forcing Coinbase to delist assets. Armstrong claimed Coinbase was not in violation of any law, and the SEC overreached in its effort to rein in its efforts.

“Regulators are supposed to enforce the law, but they can’t make up new laws on the spot if they don’t like the current ones, or weaponize a lack of clarity in the law,” he said in his post on X Friday. “I have to give credit here to the Trump administration.”

Bybit crypto exchange says attacker gained control of an ether wallet

The decision to drop the lawsuit against Coinbase came on the same day Bybit, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said an attacker had gained control of an ether wallet and transferred $1.4 billion to an unidentified address – one of the biggest crypto hacks in history.

“Bybit Hot wallet, Warm wallet and all other cold wallets are fine. The only cold wallet that was hacked was ETH cold wallet. ALL withdraws are NORMAL,” Bybit CEO Ben Zhou posted on X.

Zhou added: “Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss.”

An average of $2.75 billion was stolen from crypto platforms between 2021 and 2024, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.