Securities Exchange Act of 1934 — broker-dealer registration (§15(a) / 15 U.S.C. §78o) and national securities exchange registration (§5 / 15 U.S.C. §78e)
The Exchange Act registration duties at issue in SEC v. Coinbase: operating as an unregistered broker or as an unregistered national securities exchange is unlawful. These are the hooks for crypto trading platforms that list digital-asset securities.
Verbatim regulatory text
Verbatim provisions from Securities Exchange Act of 1934 — broker-dealer registration (§15(a) / 15 U.S.C. §78o) and national securities exchange registration (§5 / 15 U.S.C. §78e) — each quote is a verified substring of the regulator-published source snapshot, not retyped. Quoted for reference; this is not legal advice. The operational layer (P&P updates, prompts) lives in the regulation update kits.
15 U.S.C. §78o(a)
It shall be unlawful for any broker or dealer which is either a person other than a natural person or a natural person not associated with a broker or dealer which is a person other than a natural person (other than such a broker or dealer whose business is exclusively intrastate and who does not make use of any facility of a national securities exchange) to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce to effect any transactions in, or to induce or attempt to induce the purchase or sale of, any security (other than an exempted security or commercial paper, bankers’ acceptances, or commercial bills) unless such broker or dealer is registered in accordance with subsection (b) of th
15 U.S.C. §78e
It shall be unlawful for any broker , dealer, or exchange , directly or indirectly, to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce for the purpose of using any facility of an exchange within or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to effect any transaction in a security, or to report any such transaction, unless such exchange (1) is registered as national securities exchange under section 78f of this title , or (2) is exempted from such registration upon application by the exchange because, in the opinion of the Commission, by reason of the limited volume of transactions effected on such exchange, it is not practicable and not necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investo