# Coinbase Wars On

*Author: David Christopher*
*Published: Mar 30, 2024*
*Source: https://www.bankless.com/coinbase-wars-on*

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### 1️⃣ Coinbase and SEC battle continues
Despite Crypto's hopes and expectations that the SEC's case would get tossed, [Coinbase's legal battle](http://oindesk.com/policy/2024/03/27/coinbase-loses-most-of-motion-to-dismiss-sec-lawsuit/) with the SEC will instead continue following a court decision that allowed most claims to proceed while dismissing those against Coinbase Wallet — a big win for self-custodial wallets. Ever the optimists, the exchange sees this as a way to gain insights into the SEC's stance on crypto regulation. Their [Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal](https://x.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1772993916146479193?s=20), stated they stand ready to continue the proceedings while emphasizing the importance of developing clear digital asset legislation in the US.  

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2024/03/Xnapper-2024-03-30-09.37.14.png)](https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1772993922354069527)
### 2️⃣ Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years
The story of Sam Bankman-Fried's rise and fall ended this week with a final sentence of 25 years in prison. Despite Bankman-Fried's apology and appeals, [Judge Lewis Kaplan](https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sentenced-multi-billion-dollar-ftx-fraud-2024-03-28/) saw no remorse for the $8B misappropriated from FTX customers and emphasized the severity of SBF’s crimes against the industry and its investors. With the sentencing over, the only question that remains: where will he serve his time?

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2024/03/Xnapper-2024-03-30-09.43.27.png)](https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1773410243331977517)
### 3️⃣ April Showers Bring Airdrop Flowers
April looks like it will be a monumental month for degens, with several significant airdrops poised to inject billions into the market over the month. Hitting the ground running next week, Ethena will airdrop 5% of its total supply ([~$600M in ENA](https://twitter.com/0xjaypeg/status/1773084296128897303)) to participants of its first campaign on Tuesday, April 2nd. [Wormhole will then distribute 17%](https://x.com/wormholecrypto/status/1773410190118768807?s=20) of its supply ($3B based on current pre-market prices) to its users the following day, April 3rd.

*Then*, later in the month, airdrops from Solana protocols Parcl and Kamino will drop over another $200m in the ecosystem overall. With April historically being a [strong month for Bitcoin](https://www.coinglass.com/today), this additional stimulus may have us in for quite a ride.

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2024/03/Xnapper-2024-03-30-09.45.08.png)](https://twitter.com/wormholecrypto/status/1773410190118768807?s=20)
### 4️⃣ Kucoin Founders Charged Amid Regulatory Clampdown
Last Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged offshore exchange [KuCoin’s founders](https://www.theblock.co/post/284814/crypto-exchange-kucoin-laundered-9b-flouted-anti-money-laundering-laws-doj-indictment) with violating anti-money laundering laws and concealing that they had *many* US customers. For years, KuCoin operated without KYC requirements, adopting them only after coming under federal investigation. After the DOJ announcement, KuCoin users experienced substantial delays in withdrawing from the exchange — an inconvenience [KuCoin decided to compensate users](https://twitter.com/lyu_johnny/status/1773012038660624781) for with an airdrop announcement the next day for those who had delays. Amid this news, an interesting easter egg came from the complaint document, which defined Ethereum as a *commodity* in their suit — potentially weakening [the SEC’s case](https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/20/sec-gary-gensler-ethereum-security-commodity-crypto-foundation/).

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2024/03/Xnapper-2024-03-30-09.45.54.png)](https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1772666739995595007)
### 5️⃣ ETH ETF Updates: Filings and Fink Comments
More updates for ETH ETFs this week, with new filings from [Bitwise](https://blockworks.co/news/bitwise-files-for-spot-ether-etf) and [Fidelity](https://twitter.com/watcherguru/status/1772999593577390172?s=46&t=BK1udaJPJxPwz6RfE-m1iw) (a $4.5T asset manager) and comments by Blackrock CEO [Larry Fink](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/03/27/blackrocks-fink-not-concerned-about-possibility-of-sec-designating-eth-a-security/), who said the ETF is still possible even if ETH is a security. Both ETFs also included staking, following the trend of ETFs being updated to include this feature. Currently, Polymarket's prediction market gives the approval of these ETFs by [May 31st only a 21% chance](https://polymarket.com/event/ethereum-etf-approved-by-may-31/ethereum-etf-approved-by-may-31?tid=1711740279288), indicating that approval would indeed be an unexpected development.

[](https://polymarket.com/event/ethereum-etf-approved-by-may-31/ethereum-etf-approved-by-may-31?tid=1711740279288)