SEC Seeks Rejection of Coinbase’s Pushback Against Its Lawsuit
The securities regulator in the United States is
not giving up on its litigation against America’s leading cryptocurrency exchange. On Tuesday, the SEC asked a federal judge to reject the attempts of Coinbase
to have the Commission’s lawsuit against it dismissed.
In August, Coinbase urged the court to toss the SEC case, stating that the agency had
“overstepped its statutory authority,” “abused its discretion,” and abandoned its own earlier interpretations of the U.S. securities laws.
In an Oct. 3 filing, quoted by Bloomberg, the agency added new arguments to support its case. It said that public statements made by issuers,
“many of which were rebroadcast by Coinbase—led investors, including those on Coinbase’s platform, to reasonably expect profits from the issuers’ efforts.” It also described as “unsupported and nonsensical” Coinbase’s view that crypto asset sales on secondary market platforms are not investment contracts.
Many in the industry and beyond expect the lawsuit to clarify whether the SEC’s jurisdiction extends to crypto assets.
Under its current Chair, Gary Gensler, the Commission has insisted that most digital tokens are subject to its rules and that trading platforms should be registered with it. Other cases of public interest include that against Ripple which recently scored a point in its legal battle with the SEC.
