Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has entered into a tug of war with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies on US soil. Coinbase has filed a lawsuit to force the SEC to respond to its petition calling for clear rules to operate under optimal conditions.
Coinbase attacks SEC head-on
The endless tug of war between Coinbase and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should soon lead to something concrete. Indeed, Brian Armstrong’s exchange has filed a lawsuit against the SEC regarding regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies on US soil.
Specifically, Coinbase wants to force the SEC to respond to its petition from last July, which literally asked for more rules in order to operate under optimal conditions. A petition to which, to date, the SEC has not deigned to respond, while its director, Gary Gensler, has not stopped attacking the various players in the field, whom he accuses of not respecting the law
Today, we filed a narrow action in the U.S. Circuit Court to compel the SEC to respond “yes or no” to a rulemaking petition we filed with them last July asking them to provide regulatory guidance for the crypto industry. 1/4 https://t.co/rlsS1DIFfl
– paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) April 25, 2023
According to Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s General Counsel, the SEC has already rejected the petition in question while increasing sanctions against various crypto players in the US such as Kraken or Paxos to name but a few, which creates a nonsense :
“Based on the SEC’s public statements and enforcement activities in the cryptocurrency industry, it appears that the SEC has already decided to reject our petition. But it has not yet informed the public. Thus, the action Coinbase filed today simply asks the court to ask the SEC to share its decision. “
SEC gets lost in its own fog
Interviewed by the Financial Services Commitee on April 18, Gary Gensler, usually so quick to refer to all crypto-currencies as “securities”, found himself somewhat embarrassed when asked to clearly determine whether or not Ether (ETH) was indeed a security and not a commodity. Indeed, he simply did not know how to answer and simply dodged the question for more than 2 long minutes.
An attitude that only highlights the regulatory blur in which the SEC is losing itself, while the majority of players are largely open to dialogue with the regulator.
In this respect, Jesse Powell, the founder of Kraken, accused the SEC of deliberately targeting only the good players in order to slow down their development, while allowing the ‘bad’ companies to evolve, such as FTX, which, in view of the balance sheet drawn up by its new management, should have been pinned down a long time ago for numerous shortcomings.
An openness to dialogue, moreover, renewed through the Coinbase press release by Paul Grewal:
“So, until the crypto industry gets this clarity, we will continue to take every step available to us to get it, which includes today’s filing. We also remain available to the SEC and all of our regulators for dialogue at any time on these issues.”
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