American banking and financial industry advocacy groups have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal its cybersecurity incident public disclosure requirements. 

Five US banking groups led by the American Bankers Association asked the regulator to remove its rule in a May 22 letter, arguing that disclosing cybersecurity incidents “directly conflicts with confidential reporting requirements intended to protect critical infrastructure and warn potential victims.”

The group, which also included the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Bank Policy Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America and the Institute of International Bankers, claimed that the rule compromises regulatory efforts to enhance national cybersecurity.

The SEC’s Cybersecurity Risk Management rule, published in July 2023, requires companies to rapidly disclose cybersecurity incidents such as data breaches or hacks. However, the banking groups argue this rule was flawed from the start and has proven problematic in practice since taking effect.

The banking bodies said that the “complex and narrow disclosure delay mechanism” interferes with incident response and law enforcement and creates “market confusion” between mandatory and voluntary disclosures. 

Public disclosure has also been “weaponized as an extortion method by ransomware criminals to further malicious objectives,” and premature disclosures worsen insurance and liability issues for companies and “risks chilling candid internal communications and routine information sharing,” the group claimed. 

Some of the banking groups’ claims and fears regarding the ruling. Source: SIFMA

The groups specifically want “Item 1.05” to be rescinded from the SEC’s rules for Form 8-K reporting and parallel reporting requirements applicable to Form 6-K. 

Form 8-K is used to publicly notify investors in US public companies of specified events, including cybersecurity incidents, that may be important to shareholders or the SEC. 

“Critically, without Item 1.05, investor interests will still be protected, and we believe they would be better served through the pre-existing disclosure framework for reporting material information, which may include material cybersecurity incidents,” the groups stated.

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The full petition included examples of confusion from participants, specific incidents of ransomware attacks and documented regulatory conflicts. 

Public crypto companies impacted 

The requirement also impacts publicly listed crypto companies such as Coinbase, which disclosed earlier this month that hackers had bribed its support staff to leak its user data.

The disclosure saw the company hit with at least seven lawsuits over the disclosure.

Coinbase said that it rejected a $20 million ransom demand after staff leaked user data in a major phishing attack, which the exchange said could cost it up to $400 million in damages.

If the SEC rescinds the requirement, it may give firms such as Coinbase more time to disclose cybersecurity incidents to the public. 

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US House Speaker Mike Johnson has brushed off corruption concerns surrounding President Donald Trump’s dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and dodged answering whether the list of attendees should be released in the interest of transparency.

Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 25 that he knew nothing about Trump’s May 22 memecoin dinner and opted not to share his opinion on the event, which 35 House Democrats have called for the Justice Department to investigate.

“We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country,” Tapper told Johnson. “I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn’t be outraged.”

“Look, I don’t know anything about the dinner,” Johnson answered, claiming he “was a little busy this past week,” focusing on passing a $1.6 trillion federal budget funding bill.

“I’m not going to comment on something I haven’t even heard about. I’m not sure who was there or what the purpose was.”

Johnson then claimed Trump was “the most transparent president” in history and “has nothing to hide.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper (left) speaking with House Speaker Mike Johnson (right). Source: CNN

Democrats have called for the list of attendees of Trump’s crypto dinner event to be released, as they suspect Trump may be accepting foreign investments in violation of federal bribery statutes or the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution.

Under the emoluments clause, the US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.

Bloomberg reported on May 7 that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner would likely be foreign nationals.

Trump invited those who were among the top 220 largest holders of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin to his event at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

The most notable attendee was the Chinese-born Tron CEO Justin Sun, the largest holder of the TRUMP token and the biggest backer of the Trumps’ crypto platform World Liberty Financial.

Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange BitMart, posted pictures to X of himself at the event, while Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick told The New York Times on May 12 that he would attend the event after stocking up on enough TRUMP to break into the top 25 investors on the leaderboard.

In a separate May 22 press conference, several Democrats called for the release of Trump’s memecoin dinner list.

One of those speaking was Senator Elizabeth Warren, a fierce crypto critic who called Trump’s memecoin dinner an “orgy of corruption.”

Democrats call for Trump to cut crypto ties entirely

Several House Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, introduced the “Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act” on May 22 to prevent Trump and his family from profiting off crypto while in office. 

Trump has used the “power of the presidency to shamelessly promote and profit” from a series of crypto ventures, Waters said in a statement.

Related: Senators plan to amend GENIUS Act to address Trump family’s stablecoin

Waters pointed to the TRUMP memecoin, which she claims has increased Trump’s net worth by over $350 million, as well as his involvement in World Liberty Financial and the platform’s stablecoin, USD1.

An additional 14 US lawmakers supported the bill, including Nydia Velázquez, Brad Sherman and Gregory Meeks.

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Coinbase and two executives have been hit with another proposed class-action lawsuit over the crypto exchange’s stock price drop after disclosing a user data breach earlier this month and for allegedly failing to disclose a violation of an agreement with a UK regulator.

Coinbase investor Brady Nessler said in a May 22 lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal court that the data breach and the alleged broken agreement with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority resulted in a “precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares,” causing stockholders to suffer “significant losses and damages.”

Coinbase said on May 15 that its damages bill could run up to $400 million after it was hit with a $20 million extortion attempt four days earlier, with several of its customer support agents bribed to access internal systems and steal a limited amount of user account data.

Nessler claimed Coinbase (COIN) shares dropped by 7.2% to close at $244 on May 15 as a result of the disclosure. However, the stock did stage a comeback, spiking 9% and hitting $266 by the closing bell on May 16, according to Google Finance. 

Coinbase stock closed down over 3% on May 23 at $263, falling another $1.62 after the bell. COIN is up nearly 6% so far this year.

Coinbase is down from the May 23 trading session. Source: Google Finance

Nessler’s complaint is seemingly the first to argue damages caused by Coinbase’s stock drop following its breach disclosure in a series of recent class-action lawsuits over the incident.

The crypto exchange was hit with at least six lawsuits in the days after disclosing the data breach, all accusing it of mishandling the incident and failing to protect their data. 

UK agreement breach hurt stock, suit says

The FCA fined Coinbase’s UK arm $4.5 million in July 2024 for breaching a 2020 voluntary agreement preventing the exchange from onboarding customers considered high risk by the regulator.

The FCA said Coinbase onboarded 13,416 customers that the regulator considered high-risk and offered them crypto services.

Related: Coinbase presses to axe rule banning SEC staff from holding crypto

Nessler said in the suit that the fine saw Coinbase’s stock fall by over 5%, closing at $231.52 on July 25, 2024.

Nessler also claimed that Coinbase didn’t disclose it had breached this agreement when the exchange first listed its shares on the Nasdaq in April 2021, and as a result, “the market price of the Company’s securities had been artificially,” inflated. 

Nessler claims had she known about the agreement violation, she would not have purchased the stock at the “artificially inflated prices.”

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The class suit was filed on behalf of anyone who bought Coinbase stock between April 14, 2021, and May 14, 2025, and is asking for damages and a jury trial. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief financial officer Alesia Haas are also named as defendants.

Another lawsuit filed in Illinois on May 13, alleges Coinbase failed to notify users in writing of the collection, storage, or sharing of their biometric data and the purpose and retention schedule for their data.

Magazine: Bitcoin bears eye $69K, CZ denies WLF ‘fixer’ rumors: Hodler’s Digest, May 18 – 24