The Securities and Change Fee on Friday rejected a petition from Coinbase, the largest crypto alternate in the U.S., for a separate regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry.
“The fee concludes that the requested rulemaking is at present unwarranted and denies the petition,” the SEC wrote in a letter addressed to Coinbase’s chief authorized officer, Paul Grewal.
Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC, cheered on the denial in a separate statement, saying that he supported the fee’s determination as a result of, he argues, present legal guidelines and rules already apply to crypto, the SEC already addresses the industry via rulemaking, and it’s vital for his company to keep up management over what assets it deploys to supervise its regulatory agenda. “As I stated previous to the collapse of certainly one of the largest noncompliant crypto intermediaries that value buyers billions of {dollars},” he wrote, “significant engagement with the SEC is at all times welcome.”
Grewal stated in a submit on X, previously Twitter, that Coinbase plans to attraction the SEC’s rejection. “Nobody trying pretty at our industry thinks the regulation is obvious or that there isn’t extra work to do,” he wrote.
Right now the SEC denied Coinbase’s petition for guidelines for crypto. After 18 months of silence, we went to court docket to get the response the regulation requires. With appreciation for the Third Circuit, later at present we’ll once more search its assist by difficult the SEC’s abdication of its obligation. 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/tFjiW53eF7
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) December 15, 2023
The SEC’s ruling on Coinbase’s petition comes greater than a 12 months after the firm filed its request with the company, arguing that the “U.S. doesn’t at present have a functioning market in digital asset securities as a consequence of the lack of a clear and workable regulatory regime.”
After the collapse of FTX in November 2022 and the subsequent arrest of the alternate’s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, the SEC, beneath the steerage of Gensler, has launched into an in depth marketing campaign in opposition to crypto.
In the first half of 2023, it focused a few of the largest gamers in the industry, submitting fits in opposition to Gemini, Genesis, Terraform Labs and founder Do Kwon, in addition to Justin Sun and Tron. In June, it launched salvos in opposition to two crypto heavyweights, first suing the world’s largest crypto alternate, Binance, after which submitting a lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase. The SEC’s marketing campaign has continued via the finish of the 12 months, with it most lately targeting one other industry mainstay, the crypto alternate Kraken.
Most of its lawsuits in opposition to the industry’s high gamers are ongoing, even its litigation in opposition to Binance, which lately agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement with the Division of Justice for breaking anti-money laundering legal guidelines, amongst different crimes.
Coinbase, which positions itself as certainly one of the industry’s do-gooders, has cried foul at the SEC’s in depth litigation in opposition to crypto, claiming the company is “regulating via enforcement,” reasonably than rulemaking. Evidently, the SEC disagrees, and its lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase, which it alleges listed unregistered “crypto asset securities,” continues to wind its approach via court docket.
