Oregon filed a legal case against Coinbase, raising questions on unregistered crypto tokens like XRP and ADA
Another big legal battle begins in the crypto world, this time at the state level!
The state of Oregon has launched a major legal action against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield has accused Coinbase of selling and promoting some digital tokens on its platform without registration, including big names like XRP, Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), and Uniswap (UNI).
This case has taken a new turn for the crypto world because until now such cases were mostly taken up at the federal level through the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). This step of Oregon shows that now different states are also starting to take their stand in the matter of crypto regulation.
31 Tokens, 500,000 people affected
Rayfield says that Coinbase won the trust of more than 5 lakh people of Oregon, but then put them in such crypto investments which were neither regulated properly nor had proper financial supervision. This caused many people to suffer losses while Coinbase earned millions of dollars in fees on these transactions.
He said, “Coinbase won people’s trust and put them into investments that were unregulated. This caused losses to people and we feel that now there should be accountability.”
This case targets 31 digital tokens about which Oregon says that they should have been properly registered before public listing.
This is important because earlier SEC had mentioned only 18 tokens in its case, while Oregon has added 13 new tokens to this list. This also makes it clear that states are also becoming active in the crypto space among themselves and they are ready to enforce their legal norms.
Coinbase’s response: “It is state overreach”
Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal criticized Oregon’s move, saying that this is an overreach. He said that Oregon has filed the entire case without directly asking the impacted people and this will create confusion in the federal system.
Grewal said, “The impact of this lawsuit is not limited to Coinbase only. It hurts the entire digital asset ecosystem, and can hinder innovation.”
He also highlighted that such fragmented rules will make crypto companies face different rules in every state, which will become difficult for them.
XRP again on legal radar
It is also interesting that XRP, which was already under the SEC case, is now again on Oregon’s radar. While a federal court did not consider XRP as security under certain conditions, Oregon is taking a contrary stand.
This creates a new legal confusion because if every state declares the token as security or non-security according to its own, then compliance will become even more complex for crypto firms.
Ripple effects of this case can be felt across the country
Oregon’s step cannot remain alone. If they get a legal victory, other states can also follow this model. This will require crypto exchanges to modify themselves according to the laws of each state.
This can also mean that if a token is legal in California, it is not necessary that it is legal in Oregon or Texas. This makes the decentralized governance of a decentralized currency even more tricky.
A new challenge for the crypto world
This is another legal challenge for Coinbase, but a wake-up call for the entire crypto ecosystem that compliance is no longer limited to the federal level. States are now ready to take their share.
This case will decide how crypto tokens will be defined in the future – whether they are securities or not, and under what laws they will be regulated.
If Oregon wins, crypto firms will have to create a multi-state compliance strategy – a strategy that no one has even thought of until now.
So the question now is: will Coinbase be able to face this legal challenge, or will the crypto world have to step into a new legal era?