The SEC notified Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal of its decision on Friday regarding his call for cryptocurrency rulemaking, with which the agency disagreed. According to the letter to Grewal, the requested regulatory action would significantly constrain the commission’s choices regarding competing priorities and is thus declined at this time. Gary Gensler, SEC Chair, supported this decision, while Republicans Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda did not, lamenting the SEC’s refusal to open the petition up for public feedback.
Grewal filed his petition in July 2022, and in response to the SEC’s decision, he expressed on X that the existing securities regime appropriately governs crypto asset securities, but no one looking fairly at their industry believes that the law is clear or that there is not more work to do. This was followed by Coinbase being charged by the SEC in June with operating an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency and the unregistered offer and sale of securities.
