Coinbase Launches New Exchange Outside the U.S. Following Regulatory Tussle

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., has launched the Coinbase International Exchange, which will be accessible to institutional investors outside the country.

The move follows a regulatory dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the past few weeks. Institutional investors will be able to trade perpetual Bitcoin and Ethereum futures with leverage of up to 5x.

In a blog post announcing the debut of the international exchange, Coinbase said, “As more and more markets are moving forward with regulatory frameworks to become crypto hubs, we believe the moment is right to launch this international exchange.” Coinbase has been engaged in a fight with the SEC after receiving a Wells notice in March.

Coinbase responded to that Wells notice in April and argued that the SEC has not complied with the law by allowing companies like Coinbase to register with the agency.

The exchange also separately sued the agency last week to get the SEC to answer yes or no to Coinbase’s rulemaking petition.

The international exchange will allow institutional investors to trade perpetual futures contracts, which are derivatives contracts with no expiration date and are not allowed in the U.S. Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures contracts were listed on Tuesday and are settled in USDC. However, these products are not available to retail customers.

Coinbase said, “Building out a global perpetual futures exchange for digital assets will help support an updating of the financial system by making Coinbase’s trusted products and services more accessible to users of digital assets who live outside of the US.”

The exchange added, “We would like to see the US take a similar approach instead of regulation by enforcement which has led to a disappointing trend for crypto development in the US.”