On July 23, Coinbase lawyers have filed a new one in court, and they are asking a federal court to make the Securities and Exchange Commission release the papers and communications from the time Gary Gensler was the Chairman of the SEC. The reasoning behind the motion is to open up the flow of information and let parties in ongoing legal disputes decide what is the right interpretation of rules themselves. The lawyers request the release of the full set of materials to arguments the final fraud summary
Narrowed Scope of Request After Initial Pushback
Originally, the legal team of Coinbase’s requested emails and communications from the time Gensler was before and during his time as a member and the Chair of the SEC. However, the roadblock they bumped into made them change the strategy and be more specific with the request. Through a stay order, Coinbase, the crypto-asset exchange, has gone through the judicial process to query data obtained by the SEC from the queries. Additionally, with these documents, we want to make our affirmative defense stronger, for example, if we somehow manage to prove that “these exhibits are not the materials and portions which the SEC Motion raises” then they should not be a part of the case. In the meanwhile, the SEC maintains that there is no basis for the defendant’s motion as the discovery we put forth is not appropriate and it hurts the defendant.
Subpoena Request No. 23 and Digital Asset Regulation Speeches
A motion passes around the question of Subpoena Request No. 23 and documents that are related to Gensler’s digital asset regulatory speeches. One of Paul Grewal’s position is that the documents are of critical importance to us in our fight for defense. In Haer, the central issue is that the use of these devices gets detected by the network devices, whereas renewing them in the lock screens does not make a difference. It could be that the devices were last used by another team member.
SEC’s Refusal to Search Beyond Enforcement Division
The memorandum faults the SEC for its steadfast opposition to the idea of broadening the purview of their search beyond the files which already came out of their Enforcement Division investigations, giving rise to the issues of relevancy and exorbitant fees. Moreover, the latter will not be able to summon any custodian from another jurisdiction if there are no rules and institution from the former jurisdiction. Moreover, this request includes searching for emails or any other electronic communication channels where Gensler used to write down his personal and operational information.
Coinbase’s Legal Battle with the SEC
The SEC and Coinbase kicked off their legal battle in 2023, when the regulator reached out to the exchange with a lawsuit, claiming that 13 of the tokens it listed were securities. Furthermore, the SEC also charged Coinbase with being–in essence–a broker in 2019 without being registered and approved. The company has put forward the argument that the cryptocurrencies on their list did not function as securities and need not to be registered with the SEC as securities.
Information on 2021 Public Offering and SEC Review
Moreover, the SEC “the recent motion has also been served, to cause access to all the documents regarding Coinbase’s public offering in 2021, which was examined for a period of six months by the SEC. Coinbase is certain that during the review period, the SEC did not conclude that the exchange operated as an unregistered broker, exchange, or clearing agency. Moreover, the tokens which were presented by Coinbase were not Securities Offerings.
Seeking Transparency in SEC’s Actions
The motion filed by Coinbase stresses the company’s inclination towards transparency regarding the regulatory decisions and the interactions with the SEC. It particularly refers to the past charges against the SEC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for refusing to release the requested documents under the Freedom of Information Act to the public. Business hopes to shore up its defense by means of those documents and to come to the terms on the framework for digital asset regulation.
