On Monday, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal announced that the exchange is stepping up its legal efforts in its ongoing battle with U.S. regulators by filing two up-to-date sets of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Grewal he emphasized the need for clarity on how regulatory agencies approach digital assets, stating: “In short, until the government relents, neither will Coinbase.”
Coinbase aims to disclose key regulatory announcements
First FOIA request seeks documents relating to the digital asset deposit restrictions imposed on financial institutions by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and other banking regulators.
The second demand is aimed at collect logs detailing how these agencies manage other FOIA requests. These up-to-date requests differ from previous FOIA requests filed over a year ago that are currently the subject of federal lawsuits.
Grewal’s recent post discussed in detail the scope of the up-to-date proposals, focusing on all documents and correspondence exchanged between officials from various regulatory authoritiesincluding the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve Board.
These documents should address any restrictions or restrictions on digital asset companies’ deposits with depository institutions such as Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank as of June 1, 2022.
The proposal’s broad definition of “documents” covers a wide range of material, including contracts, emails, meeting minutes and all relevant communications, and is intended to provide a comprehensive picture of how regulators deal with digital resource deposit limits.
Clarity on the application of securities laws
The conflict between the exchange and U.S. regulators also has its roots in a previous FOIA request filed by History Associates on behalf of Coinbase, which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) denied, citing FOIA Disabling this applies to files collected for the purposes of ongoing enforcement proceedings.
In addition to FOIA requests, Coinbase recently asked the court for an injunction forcing the SEC to produce internal records that could shed delicate on the application of securities laws to digital assets.
This includes documents related to Ethereum’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and investigative files relating to Enigma MPC and Zachary Coburn – both of whom have settled claims with the SEC in the past.
Despite these efforts, Coinbase expressed frustration with the SEC’s minimal response, which included only three heavily redacted pages, with the agency maintaining that other data was withheld under the same exemption.
History Associates, which represents Coinbase in the FOIA case, argues that under FOIA, agencies must disclose responsive records unless they can clearly demonstrate that they fall within the scope of certain statutory exemptions, to which the regulator responded by asking for an extension of the deadline.
At the time of writing, COIN shares are trading at $213.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
