Yahoo Finance

Now let's get to some of today's top trending tickers. You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of this session through that Yahoo Finance's trending tickers page. First up, let's take a look at Coinbase announcing the SCC Securities and Exchange Commission will be dropping its case against the cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC originally brought a case against Coinbase back in 2023 under then chair Gary Gensler, arguing that certain crypto assets were subject to existing security laws. Now, in a statement, Coinbase is saying, quote, it is critical that we pass legislation which provides the long-term certainty needed for the US to lead in this industry. And quote again, that's very much been a sentiment that we've heard from a number of investors, and we've heard from a number of others that are involved within the crypto space, just in terms of the need for clarity and transparency here moving forward. But again, this is done under the Trump administration. Very much crypto has been looked at as a huge beneficiary under the Trump administration, and what that lighter regulation overall is going to look like, and the fact that they are expected here to further prioritize or put more of a priority on crypto adoption.

Yeah, it's certainly a bullish signal for those crypto bulls out there who thought that this administration was going to be friendlier to the digital currency, and sure enough, we get a decision like this. We should note that this still requires a commission vote. So it's all but official at this point, but this had been essentially a move from the SEC to regulate the company as its own stock exchange. And as early as last week in Coinbase's earnings, they had this shift away from having their own crypto assets be part of their balance sheet. They moved that off. So it looked like they had this huge drop in revenue on their balance sheet, but really they just indicated this shift away from the fact that they own those assets, making it more clear that the consumers own those assets. That's more similar to what you see brokerage accounts doing on their balance sheets. So it was interesting to see that in the context of this decision today that they are already kind of moving in this direction, but I think it points to the lack of clarity that we have about regulatory pressure on these asset classes and what that is going to look like in the future. Though, this is certainly a signal of the SEC under this administration potentially being kinder to crypto more broadly.