As Europe implements a regulatory framework for digital assets, a French regulator has invited American crypto industry participants to come to France if they want legal certainty, CoinDesk reported.
Benoît de Juvigny, Secretary General of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), said the French people are “proud to be pioneers” in the crypto industry, and added, “If American players want to benefit, in the very short term, from the French regime, and from the start of 2025 from European arrangements, clearly they are welcome.” Crypto companies, CoinDesk reported, including Bittrex, have shut down their U.S. operations, citing a regulatory environment that combines active enforcement with an absence of comprehensive regulations.
Richie Lai, the co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Bittrex, announced in a statement in March that, due to the regulatory and economic climate in the U.S., the company would be winding down its domestic operations. "Regulatory requirements are often unclear and enforced without appropriate discussion or input, resulting in an uneven competitive landscape," he said in a post on the company’s website. Lai said that although he and the other co-founders "made great strides toward accomplishing our goal of maturing the crypto space," it is "no longer feasible" for Bittrex to operate in the U.S. He said they will shift their focus to "helping Bittrex Global succeed outside the U.S."
Bittrex's announcement came amidst a wave of penalties and enforcement actions from U.S. regulatory agencies, following closely on the heels of a fine from the SEC levied at crypto exchange Kraken, a Wells notice sent by the SEC to Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., and a lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, Decrypt reported.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance in June, according to the SEC website.
Binance responded to the SEC's lawsuit with a blog post saying it was "disappointed" in the regulator's decision to pursue litigation and highlighting the absence of regulatory clarity for crypto exchanges in the U.S. "From the start, we have actively cooperated with the SEC’s investigations and have worked hard to answer their questions and address their concerns," the blog post said. "Unfortunately, the SEC’s refusal to productively engage with us is just another example of the Commission’s misguided and conscious refusal to provide much-needed clarity and guidance to the digital asset industry."
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after the SEC’s lawsuit, that he sees the litigation as an opportunity to gain regulatory clarity for the industry. "We're proud to represent the industry in court to finally get some clarity around crypto rules," Armstrong said. He also emphasized that the "SEC and CFTC have made conflicting statements, and don't even agree on what is a security and what is a commodity,” and noted that the SEC approved Coinbase’s application to go public in 2021.