SEC requests extra time to respond to Coinbase’s appeal

After a judge issued the SEC a seven-day deadline and asked for clarification, the agency has now responded to Coinbase.

To respond to Coinbase’s request for clarification on cryptocurrency regulatory issues, the US securities regulator has requested an additional four months.

The regulatory body stated that the “mandamus petition should be denied.” Mandamus requires a government organization to take action to carry out its responsibilities.

Additionally, according to attorneys for the SEC, “the Commission has not determined what action to take on that petition in whole or in part—which is entirely reasonable given the breadth of the rulemaking petition and the fact that it was filed just months ago and supplemented by Coinbase more recently.”

But according to the organization, “Commission staff expect to be capable of providing a suggestion to the Commission considering Coinbase’s rulemaking petition within the next 120 days.”

The SEC responded by stating that it finds Coinbase’s claims to be “baseless.”

The document states that Coinbase “erroneously contends that the Commission’s enforcement of existing legal requirements, along with certain statements by the Commission’s Chair regarding the application of existing statutes and regulations to crypto assets that are securities, constitute a sub silentio decision to deny Coinbase’s rulemaking petition.”

Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, said in a tweet that the lawsuit confuses “the evidence of a decision those statements provide with an argument that the statements are themselves a decision.”

The SEC sued Coinbase for running an unregistered securities exchange and marketing unregistered securities, and the court issued an order to the SEC on the same day.