After receiving a Wells Notice from the SEC, Coinbase has been on a hot streak lately about the importance of regulations for cryptocurrency and how they need to be created. Much of the issue boils down to a lack of consistency by the SEC which Coinbase believes is both unfair and hypocritical because they are enforcing laws without trans[arency, failing to provide accurate reasoning for the Well Notice sent to Coinbase. 

Since then, Coinbase has put together a new grassroots campaign to bring the crypto community together as a whole by providing free NFTs for crypto enthusiasts to acquire through Coinbase. Though the NFTs have no intended trade value, their use case serves a new purpose - protest. 

Showing support with nfts

The NFT collection itself displays a blue shield similar to an emoji that symbolizes a willingness to stand up and defend cryptocurrency regulation in the United States. As mentioned before, the NFT collection is entirely free and has an unlimited supply while the mint remains open. 

Conbase has asked, in conjunction with the NFTs, that minters also include an emoji of a shield in their Twitter display names to further support their cause. The protest also links back to Coinbase’s new Crypto 435 Advocacy group which is being used to call on congressional members around the country to support effective crypto regulation. 

Proceeds go to charity

Coinbase is taking its actions a step further with the minting of its NFTs as well. While the NFT itself has no mint price, the gas fees themselves are being processed through Coinbase and stored in a position that will then distribute mint proceeds to various web3-focused charities and foundations in a donation round using Gitcoin. 

Although not the first company to use cryptocurrencies for charitable causes, Coinbase’s decision to send any and all proceeds to vetted organizations shows that the value of crypto still has meaning through a tough bear market and that people are willing to accept it as a form of donation. 

Improving crypto regulations

The topic of crypto regulations has been talked about heavily since 2021 when crypto reached new levels of adoption. Since then, we’ve seen a number of collapses, failures, and scams that have made most people within web3 agree that some form of regulatory framework is needed. 

However, talks of regulations took a new direction after the collapse of FTX. While the SEC has been determined to sue nearly every American web3 business, Gary Ginseler was in constant contact with Sam Bankman-Fried. At the time this seemed normal but quickly became an issue once fraud was discovered at the company leading to SBF’s arrest. 

What we saw was an American regulatory commission that was taking advice from a con man who had based a number of web3 businesses outside of the United States to avoid regulatory concerns while providing advice on how the U.S. should regulate web3. 

The hypocrisy of the situation caused concern for many, influencing many politicians to question Ginsler’s motivations and reason for being so eager to file lawsuits against American businesses when responsible companies like Coinbase have made every effort possible to comply with current laws and show a willingness to help establish new ones from an American perspective that was not available at FTX.