In an interview with the Financial Times on July 31st, Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong disclosed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) once told the crypto exchange to remove almost 250 tokens from its platform, except Bitcoin. This request came before the regulatory body filed a lawsuit against the exchange.

Armstrong stated that the SEC reportedly expressed its belief that "every asset other than Bitcoin is a security."

He added that “we said, well how are you coming to that conclusion? Because that’s not our interpretation of the law.”

He recalled the regulator's stance, saying, "we’re not going to explain it to you; you need to delist every asset other than Bitcoin."

A similar view is expressed by SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who stated in a February interview with New York Magazine that "everything other than Bitcoin" falls under the category of a security within the agency's jurisdiction.

Armstrong expressed that this situation essentially simplified the decision, leading him to think, "let’s go to court and find out what the court says."

In early June, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, alleging that the company is functioning as an unregistered exchange and identifying 13 cryptocurrencies that it claimed Coinbase offered as unregistered securities. Just a few days before that, the regulator had filed a similar complaint against Binance.

The SEC explained to the Financial Times that its enforcement division does not issue formal demands for "companies to delist crypto assets." However, the agency did acknowledge that its staff might share what actions could potentially breach securities laws.

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