Coinbase’s Vishal Gupta leaves the company

Gupta reportedly left Coinbase because of the rising legal and regulatory scrutiny of the firm

Coinbase’s head of exchange, Vishal Gupta, is leaving the firm after over two years. Coinbase is the biggest crypto currency exchange in the world. According to a Bloomberg report on April 10, Gupta had decided to leave the crypto currency exchange but would continue in the crypto currency industry, leading some to postulate that he would soon start a new venture dealing with digital assets or blockchain technology.

Gupta was a VP at leading global investment firm Goldman Sachs and the head of USD Coin at stablecoin issuer Circle prior to joining Coinbase. Gupta reportedly left Coinbase because of the rising legal and regulatory scrutiny of the firm. This comes amid rising regulatory actions on the crypto sector by U.S. regulatory authorities.

Coinbase said in March that it had received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which raised the probability of an enforcement action.

The SEC has raised its enforcement efforts in the crypto currency sector, targeting firms and services it alleges were offering unregistered securities. Moreover, the leading crypto exchange is supporting plaintiffs who are suing the Office of Foreign Asset Control of the United States Treasury Department over its decision to bar the Tornado Cash mixer.

Though, neither Gupta’s LinkedIn page nor his Twitter profile currently suggested that he had left his position at Coinbase.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of the crypto currency exchange, Brian Armstrong, appears to have confirmed that support for Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution, Lightning Network, which allows almost instant transactions with zero transaction fees, will be added soon. Yet, Armstrong didn’t detail on when the community may expect the crypto exchange to provide support for the Lightning Network.