The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently scored a major but partial win against Coinbase. A federal judge in the lawsuit ruled that the SEC’s claim of unregistered securities sales by the crypto exchange could proceed to trial before a jury. However, Ripple’s chief legal officer gave out his two cents over the court decision.
Ripple CLO jumps in Coinbase case
Stuart Alderoty, Chief Legal Officer at Ripple, in a post stated that last week’s decision on the Coinbase case gave out four different and confusing definitions of a crypto ecosystem.
Pointing out several quotes from the ruling, Ripple CLO asserted that it sounded like legal gibberish. He mentioned that the SEC claims that “whenever you acquire a token you are always investing in an amorphous ecosystem”. He added that it is regardless of why, how, or where you acquired it.
Alderoty gave an example of Judge Torres in the US SEC vs Ripple case, whom he suggests as an Ivy League educated, with Bronx street sense person. Ripple CLO highlighted that she looked at the full evidentiary record. However, she understood the SEC had strayed far from the “Howey test”. In this criteria, where a promoter made promises directly to investors about a clearly defined enterprise.
The SEC initially filed suit against Coinbase in June, alleging that the exchange was operating as an unregistered broker and exchange. The regulator sought permanent injunctions to prevent Coinbase from continuing these activities.
What does the ruling say?
District Judge Katherine Polk Failla stressed that despite the recent emergence of the crypto industry, the transactions in question fit well within the legal framework used to identify securities for nearly 80 years. She found that the SEC alleged that Coinbase engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities through its Staking Program.
However, the judge dismissed the SEC’s claim that Coinbase acted as an unregistered broker by providing its Wallet application to customers.
In response to CNBC’s inquiry, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, expressed readiness for the ruling and indicated the company’s intention to delve further into the SEC’s internal perspectives and discussions on crypto regulation.
Following Failla’s decision in the Coinbase case, the SEC filed a notice in a separate lawsuit against Binance, another major cryptocurrency exchange. In that case, the SEC accuses Binance of conducting multiple unregistered offers and sales of crypto asset securities.
Coinbase’s legal battle with the SEC occurs amidst its expanding role in Wall Street’s adoption of crypto.