US securities regulators have asked for another four months to respond to Coinbase's request for crypto regulatory clarity.
In a June 13 letter to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the SEC said it needed an additional 120 days to respond to Coinbase's request to adopt new rules and provide greater clarity on the laws governing cryptocurrencies. The letter was in response to The court's June 6 order to the SEC directing the regulator to address whether it refused to make the rule or needed more time to respond.
The SEC said it “has not yet decided what action to take on all or part of the petition,” and called Coinbase’s request to enforce the write “without merit.” The regulator claims that the enforcement petition “should be denied,” but expects it will be able to make recommendations on Coinbase's rulemaking petition “within the next 120 days.”
In response to the letter, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal told his 40,000 Twitter followers that the SEC had repeated the "fallacy" that no decision had been made on any new regulation. SEC Hears Comments from House Republican Blockchain Association on Proposed Definition of " Exchange" He added that the letter ignored clear statements from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler that the SEC had "no intention of issuing new rules."
"[The SEC] instead conflated the evidence for a decision provided by these statements with the argument that the statement itself was a decision," Grewal said. "Despite the clear order from the court, they refused to commit to any deadline," Grewal added.
The court's order to the SEC came on the same day the regulator sued Coinbase for offering unregistered securities and operating an unregistered securities exchange.
