Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong hit back at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair over the agency's lawsuit against the crypto exchange, calling him an outlier, while also reassuring customers that their funds were safe.

The SEC alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities that should have been registered, including tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polygon. The agency also said Coinbase was operating as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearinghouse.

Armstrong, an outspoken critic of the SEC who has led a push in Washington for clearer crypto rules, said at a Bloomberg conference that the company had approached the regulator about becoming registered, but received an icy reception from Chair Gary Gensler at their first meeting.

Gensler has long said most tokens constitute securities and has steadily asserted the SEC's authority over the crypto market, recently focusing on unregistered crypto broker dealer, exchange trading and clearing activity. Crypto companies, including Coinbase, dispute that crypto tokens are securities and have repeatedly called for the SEC to create clear rules.

"The SEC chair is really an outlier," Armstrong says adding that several lawmakers he had talked to were supportive of developing a clear regulatory framework for the technology.

Coinbase shares rebounded on Wednesday to rise nearly 3.1 percent to $53.2.

The SEC sued Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, likewise accusing it of selling cryptocurrency products without registering them as securities. It also alleged Binance artificially inflated trading volumes, diverted customer funds and failed to restrict US customers from its platform.

Paul Grewal, the company's chief legal officer says, “I was confident the SEC would not try to freeze Coinbase's assets, as it has done in the case of Binance. The standards that are required for such an asset seizure simply don't apply in our case.”