After being accused of breaking securities laws earlier this summer by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase plans to submit an order with the court on Friday to dismiss the SEC’s complaint against it “in its entirety”. On the earnings conference for the second quarter of 2023 that took place on August 3, 2023, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal expressed confidence that the exchange will prevail in the court action that was launched by the regulator.
With respect to the litigation with the SEC, I want to be very clear. We do think we can win. We expect to win.
Paul Grewal – Coinbase Chief Legal Officer
In June, the SEC brought charges against Coinbase for numerous areas of its operation, one of which was the company’s failure to register as an exchange, broker, or clearing agency. The crypto industry giant was also hit with fines for the unregistered offer and sale of securities that were connected to its staking-as-a-service programme by the regulatory body.
Grewal said that Coinbase would claim that it did not offer any securities on its website, that the SEC does not have the jurisdiction to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges, and that the SEC never made it clear to Coinbase that there was a need to register until it deemed Coinbase’s registration statement effective in April 2021.
Our goal across not just the litigation, but all of our efforts engaging with the SEC and engaging with the U.S. government as a whole is to achieve regulatory clarity.
Grewal said
Last month, attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) contended that the exchange was aware it had broken securities laws. In particular, they refuted a claim that the SEC’s acceptance of a registration statement relating to Coinbase’s initial public offering in 2021 indicated that its enforcement case was without validity.
6/13/23, Ltr to the 3d Circuit: "The Commission has not yet decided what action to take on that petition."
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) August 3, 2023
Today: “We can get to crypto later.”
Is there any serious question that a decision was made to deny sensible rules but deliberately withheld from the public?…
The reason why we are so focused on pushing for regulatory clarity here in the U.S. is that at present, under the status quo, we have very conflicting messages about what the law provides.
Grewal said
