As the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued the world’s two largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase and Binance, other US cryptocurrency exchanges will suffer the same fate. On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Coinbase of trading at least 13 cryptocurrencies that should have been listed on its records. A day earlier, he accused Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, of offering 12 cryptocurrencies without registering them as securities.

Specific lawsuits expand the total number of cryptocurrencies that the Securities and Exchange Commission defines as securities. This raises questions about other similar exchanges that have allowed US investors to trade securities such as kraken, gemini, crypto.com and okcoin and whether they could face legal action from regulators. Some stock exchanges may exclude these values ​​from trading. Both Binance and Coinbase deny the allegations and insist they will defend their case in court.

More broadly, crypto companies have begun to operate in a gray area of ​​regulation. But under the leadership of Gary Gensler, the US Securities and Exchange Commission insists on being reminded that it has the power and authority to control the industry. It states that most cryptocurrencies meet the definition of a security and must be subject to the same strict reporting rules as all other securities.

According to the consulting company Cornerstone Research and the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency has already filed 130 lawsuits and settlements against the cryptocurrency industry. In many of these cases, he named specific cryptocurrencies. As Scott Freeman, co-founder of JST Digital, a digital asset finance firm, points out, “it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the U.S. authorities, and possibly the Justice Department itself, file more lawsuits in the coming weeks.” Cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase and Binance, are challenging the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission over their own operations as they insist that many of the cryptocurrencies they offer are more like commodities than securities. They have repeatedly urged regulators to set clearer rules rather than demonstrate their power through enforcement.

Crypto exchanges “do not trade securities, but for every amount they undertake, they conduct a full risk and security review, including a process for full compliance with the relevant law,” according to a spokesman for kraken cryptocurrency. These final lawsuits will be resolved by the justice system, which could take years. The lawsuit of the Securities and Exchange Commission against the cryptocurrency Ripple XRP has been in court for more than two years. But whether or not the SEC is justified, the lawsuits send a very clear signal to the crypto industry that the agency is not going to give up. So say the leaders of the crypto industry. Large companies in the industry can hold their own against the Securities and Exchange Commission, but smaller ones will eventually go bankrupt after such a showdown.