Coinbase Continues to Push SEC To Act on Crypto Rulemaking Petition

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, has once more urged for a mandamus to compel the SEC to provide a response to the company’s petition regarding cryptocurrency rulemaking.

Coinbase Seeks Issuance of a Mandamus

According to the report, Coinbase is seeking the issuance of a mandamus within a 30-day timeframe to compel the SEC to provide an official response regarding the acceptance or denial of their petition.

Criticism of the SEC

On October 13,in an X post, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, strongly criticized the SEC for what he perceived as unwarranted delay and urged the necessity of a mandamus to compel the SEC to clearly articulate its intentions. He also shared Coinbase’s response to the SEC’s update, which the company had submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

As per the response: “The SEC’s unilluminating report is mere bureaucratic pantomime and confirms that nothing short of mandamus will prompt the agency to take its obligations seriously. It took more than a year and an order from this Court to elicit even a staff-level recommendation.”

SEC’s Underwhelming Response

This comes after an eagerly anticipated development in which the SEC issued a status update on October 12, which, to the frustration of many, just offered a vague statement indicating that “commission staff provided a recommendation” to the SEC in response to Coinbase’s petition, without revealing any specific details.

Coinbase vs. SEC

Coinbase has faced a prolonged period of regulatory scrutiny and legal conflicts with U.S. regulators. Notably, Coinbase initiated its request months ago in April by filing a lawsuit, seeking a court order that would compel the SEC to respond to its inquiry. 

In June of this year, Coinbase sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in which it alleged that the SEC had disregarded its call for the establishment of a regulatory framework for digital assets and had consistently avoided addressing Coinbase’s requests for rulemaking.