According to reports, Coinbase was approved by US regulators on Monday to proceed with acquisitions that will allow it be become one of the first federally regulated exchanges for cryptocurrencies that are labeled securities.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority approved Coinbase’s purchase of Keystone Capital Corp., Venovate Marketplace Inc. and Digital Wealth LLC.
Coinbase can now offer digital securities under federal regulation and oversight. This gives Coinbase a license to operate as a registered investment advisor, broker dealer and an alternative trading system. Since they are regulated and registered with the SEC it would allow Coinbase to issue digital security coins for ICO's in the future.
Coinbase is in competition with Circle, which also recently announced that it was also regisering with the SEC for brokerage and the trading of digital securities.