Coinbase Sues SEC and FDIC, Seeks Access to Federal Crypto Records – DiarioBitcoin
By Hannah Perez
The lawsuits are based on alleged violations of FOIA, a law that allows access to records from any federal agency. Coinbase wants to know the regulators’ stance on cryptocurrencies.
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- Coinbase Files Legal Action Against Two US Regulators: SEC and FDIC
- Alleges regulators violated FOIA, which provides access to internal records of federal agencies
- Cryptocurrency exchange has been seeking regulatory clarity for the industry
Coinbase has filed legal actions against two federal agencies in the United States as part of efforts to seek regulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency industry.
The lawsuits, filed Thursday in a Washington, D.C., district court, They accuse federal financial regulators of trying to separate the cryptocurrency industry from the banking sector and ask a court to force those agencies to comply with FOIA requests.
“For nearly two years, a wide range of federal financial regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve Board, have used every regulatory tool at their disposal to try to cripple the digital asset industry.“, according to the complaint filed against the FDIC cited by The Block.
“This FOIA Lawsuit Seeks to Expose the FDIC’s Role in That Illegal Scheme“, Add.
Regulators refuse to share their records
Coinbase had hired History Associates Incorporated, a private historical research firm, to file a FOIA request on his behalf late last year. According to reports, The disclosure requests sent to the SEC related to how the agency views Ethereum.
The company had requested “access to all copies and records related to Ethereum’s move to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism“However, the SEC denied the request and then rejected his appeal, according to the complaint.
History Associates He had also made other FOIA requests regarding cryptocurrency cases with the intention of “understand the vision of the law underlying the SEC’s enforcement offensive against the digital asset industry“, he detailed Coinbase in a complaint. However, the result was the same. History is also suing the SEC on similar grounds.
“The SEC withheld nearly all necessary records based on stereotypical claims that these unresolved cases might be related to some unspecified ongoing investigations.“wrote the team History. “Those denials violated the SEC’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.“.
As for the FOIA requests that were issued to the FDIC, these were related to the “termination letters” from the agency. The FDIC began sending letters between March 2022 and May 2023 to some financial institutions asking them not to expand cryptocurrency-related activities and to provide more information, according to reports.
Similar to the SEC, that federal agency also refused to provide access to the records.
Coinbase seeks regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies
It is not the first time that Coinbase sues US regulators seeking clarity on rules applicable to digital currencies. The cryptocurrency exchange platform demanded to the SEC in April 2023 after that agency refused to respond to a request for Coinbase for the development of formal standards for the cryptocurrency industry.
The company has been making an attempt to force the SEC to agree that there is a need for more guidance and sector-specific rules. The two have been at odds for years. The SEC filed its own lawsuit against Coinbase in mid-2023 accusing the platform of violating federal securities law.
The development company Blockchain Consensys also filed a lawsuit against the SEC last month in which it questioned an investigation by that agency into “Ethereum 2.0“. The company recently said it still intends to pursue legal action against the regulator, even though the SEC announced the closure of that investigation.
Others in the industry have also used FOIA requests to try to understand how US regulators decide which projects to attack and what financial institutions have been told.
Article by Hannah Estefanía Pérez / DailyBitcoin
Picture of Unsplash, edited, with logo Coinbase
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