Is Crypto Dead?

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, accusing it of mishandling customer funds and a litany of other white-collar crimes. It also charged Coinbase, a public company and the biggest U.S. crypto business, with failing to register as a broker-dealer.

The government actions did not move the price of bitcoin much, nor did they crater Coinbase stock; traders and investors had been expecting the enforcement actions for months. And both firms vowed to fight the charges and remain operational. Binance “should not be the subject of an SEC enforcement action, let alone on an emergency basis,” the firm said in a statement. “We are very confident in the way we run our business—the same business we presented to the SEC in order for us to become a public company,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, said in response.

Even before the SEC announcements, crypto was in trouble. Dozens of firms had failed, millions of individual investors had plunged into the red or cashed out, and billions of dollars of institutional investment had moved