Key takeaways:
- In its ongoing legal dispute with the banking regulator, US crypto firm Coinbase has persisted in requesting access to Gary Gensler’s private correspondence.
- The legal director of Coinbase stated in a post on X on July 3 that the company’s efforts for “reasonable discovery” were a reaction to a lawsuit that the SEC had initially initiated.
In its ongoing legal dispute with the banking regulator, US crypto firm Coinbase has persisted in requesting access to Gary Gensler’s private correspondence, claiming they are a “suitable source of discovery.”
In April, Coinbase initially demanded that Gensler provide personal correspondence, citing its relevance to the matter. This includes all materials pertaining to crypto that date back to 2017.
In a letter dated June 28, the Securities and Exchange Commission attempted to thwart Coinbase’s motion by stating that it “rejected this position and proposal.” District Court Judge Katherine Failla received the letter.
Now, in a letter dated July 3, Coinbase has contested this, claiming that “the heart of Coinbase’s fair notice defense” is Gensler’s private correspondence about the legal status of digital assets and crypto exchanges while serving as SEC chair. Coinbase stated:
“Mr. Gensler has purported to share his views and communicate with market participants at times expressly in his personal capacity,”
The solicitors added that conversations from Gensler before and during his stint as SEC Chair were equally important since they would provide them with a clearer understanding of his evolving regulatory philosophy.
The legal director of Coinbase stated in a post on X on July 3 that the company’s efforts for “reasonable discovery” were a reaction to a lawsuit that the SEC had initially initiated. Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, stated:
“We have responded to the SEC’s effort to block reasonable discovery from Mr. Gensler in a case that it—not Coinbase—chose to file,”
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase in June 2023, claiming that the crypto exchange had broken federal securities laws by listing thirteen tokens that it claimed to be securities and that it had been conducting business as an “unregistered securities broker” since 2019, almost two years prior to its April 2021 IPO.
Coinbase contends that the tokens that are offered on its exchange are not securities and are not subject to SEC laws.
