(Bloomberg) — Coinbase Global Inc. said buying cryptocurrency on an exchange was more like collecting Beanie Babies than investing in a stock or bond.
The biggest US crypto exchange made the comparison Wednesday in a New York federal court hearing. Coinbase was arguing for the dismissal of a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit accusing it of selling unregistered securities.
William Savitt, a lawyer for Coinbase, told US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla that tokens trading on the exchange aren’t securities subject to SEC jurisdiction because buyers don’t gain any rights as a part of their purchases, as they do with stocks or bonds.
“It’s the difference between buying Beanie Babies Inc. and buying Beanie Babies,” Savitt said.
The question of whether digital tokens are securities has divided courts. Another Manhattan federal judge ruled in July that exchange sales of Ripple Labs XRP token weren’t subject to SEC…
