If you opened an exchange and did nothing but trade bitcoin, and only bitcoin, you would be free and clear, but there is no real money in that. Coinbase argued a few years ago they were losing to competition because their competitors could do a lot of gray area stuff they couldn't to do being a US-based traded company. Getting listed on Coinbase used to be the gold standard of a trusted, respectable crypto, but they at some point decided screw it and just embraced the coming legal challenges.