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Coinbase has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to obtain documents on their approaches to cryptocurrency regulation. Coinbase’s chief legal officer highlighted the lack of clear guidelines from the SEC and the FDIC’s pressure on financial institutions. The crypto exchange’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuits seek transparency regarding investigations and communications that impact the crypto industry.
Coinbase Takes Legal Action for Crypto Regulation Clarity
Crypto exchange Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) has initiated a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to obtain documents on the agencies’ approaches to cryptocurrency regulation.
Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, explained in a series of posts on social media platform X on Thursday: “Financial regulators have used multiple tools at their disposal to try to cripple the digital-asset industry.” He noted that the SEC “has claimed sweeping authority, but refuses to provide any rules, let alone consistent or coherent ones.” Additionally, he stressed that the FDIC “pressured financial institutions to cut off the industry from the banking system.” Grewal added:
Today we filed lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act for requests we made over a year ago seeking important information to which we, and the public, are entitled.
“We asked the SEC for documents about closed investigations to shed light on how the SEC views its newfound, sweeping (and unlawful) authority. One of those investigations, which only recently closed, focused on ETH, which the SEC publicly announced is not a security in 2018. And the other investigations have been closed for years. But the SEC stonewalled our requests,” he detailed.
The Coinbase legal chief continued: “We asked the FDIC for the letters they sent to financial institutions asking them to indefinitely ‘pause’ crypto-related activities, an action that the FDIC’s own Office of Inspector General criticized for creating a ‘risk that the FDIC would inadvertently limit financial institution innovation and growth in the crypto space.’ But the FDIC stonewalled our requests.”
Grewal concluded:
This is no way to regulate. And this is no way to operate a transparent government. Today we demand better from our financial regulators. We appreciate the Court’s attention to these important issues and look forward to sharing updates in the future.
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