- Coinbase accuses the SEC of allowing it to go public with the same digital assets listed and later claiming to be unregistered securities.
- Coinbase’s lawsuit comes days after Binance’s motion alleging SEC misconduct was denied.
- Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer insists that the exchange is ready to dialogue with any regulatory agency.
In a motion submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) has asked that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) complaint charges be dismissed for lack of merit.
The exchange claims that when the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted Coinbase’s plan to go public back in May 2021, the SEC was aware of all operations, including staking and listing.
Coinbase stated in the 177-page document that the SEC’s accusations were based on claims that 12 of the listed crypto tokens traded on the exchange are securities. But it’s interesting to note that when the SEC authorized Coinbase to go public, six of the twelve digital assets named were already trading there. Coinbase claims that the legal claims should be abandoned right away because the SEC at the time did not classify any of the crypto assets as securities.
Ready for arbitration
In what may seem similar to its push for arbitration with users in California, which was granted by the Supreme Court, Coinbase has stated that it is ready to sit down with any regulatory authority including the SEC to discuss the way forward.
We welcome dialogue any time with any regulator, including the SEC, and believe new legislation and rulemaking is the right path forward. But the claims in this case go far beyond existing law – and should be dismissed. 2/2 https://t.co/3CID7vYURP
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) June 29, 2023
Coinbase also claims that because Congress has not passed the necessary legislation, the SEC lacks the authority to oversee the developing cryptocurrency industry.
Furthermore, Coinbase contends that Congress must enact new legislation to regulate the cryptocurrency market because it is a worldwide, emerging economy. Without doing so, the nation runs the risk of losing its technological edge to regions like Europe, China, and Singapore that have already implemented crystal-clear cryptocurrency legislation.