The SEC stated that: "[It] charged Coinbase, Inc. with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Coinbase for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program."

The SEC stated: "Since at least 2019, through the Coinbase Platform, Coinbase has operated as: an unregistered broker, including by soliciting potential investors, handling customer funds and assets, and charging transaction-based fees; an unregistered exchange, including by providing a market place that, among other things, brings together orders of multiple buyers and sellers of crypto assets and matches and executes those orders; and an unregistered clearing agency, including by holding its customers' assets in Coinbase-controlled wallets and settling its customers' transactions by debiting and crediting the relevant accounts. By collapsing these functions into a single platform and failing to register with the SEC as to any of the three functions, and not having qualified for any applicable exemptions from registration, Coinbase has for years defied the regulatory structures and evaded the disclosure requirements that Congress and the SEC have constructed for the protection of the national securities markets and investors."

The SEC stated: "On June 6, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Coinbase, Inc. with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Coinbase for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program."

On February 27, 2025, the SEC "announced that the Commission has filed a joint stipulation with Coinbase Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc. to dismiss the ongoing civil enforcement action against the two entities."

The Court stated that "the Commission filed its complaint in this civil enforcement action (the "Litigation") on June 6, 2023... on March 27, 2024, the Court entered an order on Defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings, in which the Court granted the motion in part and denied the motion in part... Defendants moved to certify an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. §1292(b) of the Court's March 27, 2024 Order and this Court granted such motion on January 7, 2025... on January 21, 2025, the commission's Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda launched a crypto task force dedicated to helping the commission develop the regulatory framework for crypto assets."