Coinbase presses U.S. Court to compel SEC to release crypto classification documents

Coinbase has filed a motion with the US District Court for the District of Colombia, wanting the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to disclose documents detailing its crypto asset classification.

However, the commission has fought against Coinbase’s lawsuit, asking the court for a 3-year wait before releasing any documents to the exchange.

Coinbase wants the SEC to reveal all its documents on crypto classification

Coinbase, with the help of its consulting firm History Associates Inc., has submitted a motion to the District Court of Columbia, requesting a partial summary judgment in its case against the SEC. The exchange wants the regulator to produce documents on its crypto classification.

In its filed motion, the exchange stated that the commission’s series of denials of its FOIA requests submitted more than a year ago have pushed it to seek legal approval.

Legally, the FOIA allows the public to ask for access to federal agencies’ records.

However, according to the exchange, the commission claimed that the FOIA exemption, 7(A) “may no longer apply based on unspecified developments” and failed to provide any responsive documents.

Eleanor Terrett, a journalist at Fox Business, remarked:

Coinbase lawyers say the SEC has been stonewalling its attempts to get these documents through FOIA requests, despite the exchange suing the agency to get access to them.

Eleanor Terrett

The SEC now wants the court to grant it a three-year timeline to allow it to re-review and potentially release the documents to the exchange.

Coinbase consulting firm History Associates Inc., however, has criticized the SEC’s request to the court, claiming the exchange is delaying the document release.

Coinbase’s earlier FOIA requests focused on two major investigations that the SEC had conducted. The first centered around Enigma MPC, a crypto startup that had to settle with the commission in 2020 over accusations of unlawful token sale. The other looked into Zachary Coburn of EtherDelta, who settled with the SEC in 2018, with the exchange in both instances requesting the investigation records.

The Securities and Exchanges Commission charged Coinbase In June 2023

About a year ago, the SEC charged Coinbase with running an unregistered securities broker platform and illegally selling and offering securities.

According to Gurbir S. Grewal, the then director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, Coinbase knew of the regulator’s securities law’s applicability but chose to overlook it. He argued that the exchange’s failures deprived investors of asset protections, including inspection by the SEC, recordkeeping requirements, and safeguards against conflicts of interests.

The SEC even requested the court to impose injunctions and disgorgements on its gains and penalties to the exchange. Aside from the SEC complaints brought to court, Coinbase also sued the SEC, hoping to compel the regulator to act on a petition for rulemaking it had filed in 2022.