The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested a New York court to deny Coinbase’s subpoena, which demands the agency provide extensive documentation related to crypto assets.
The SEC described Coinbase’s request as encompassing “essentially all documents that in any way relate to crypto assets.”
In a court filing, the regulator stated that it had already been cooperative with Coinbase’s requests, disclosing additional documents, including fair notice materials and files from investigations beyond the Coinbase case.
“Unsatisfied, Coinbase continued to press the SEC to conduct a sprawling search of all agency records—including all internal files and all communications with government agencies and market participants,” the SEC wrote. The agency argued that Coinbase failed to cite any precedent or legal principle to justify its “extraordinary” demands.
The SEC concluded that Coinbase sought “entirely irrelevant” documents on the weak premise that they could possibly relate to Coinbase’s services or the application of securities laws to digital assets.
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Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, responded on X by stating, “If the SEC is going to engage in an unprecedented regulation by enforcement campaign, the least they owe to those they target – and the public – is transparency.”
Coinbase had earlier asked the court to issue a subpoena to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, seeking access to his personal emails as part of discovery. This request was rejected by U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of New York.
Elsewhere, Paul Grewal denied allegations that the exchange violated campaign finance laws by donating $25 million to a super political action committee (PAC) in May 2024.
Crypto skeptic Molly White claims that Coinbase “appears” to have broken campaign finance laws by contributing to the Fairshake crypto super PAC while negotiating a federal government contract.
Grewal refuted these claims, stating that Coinbase was not a federal contractor under the “plain language” clause of Code of Federal Regulations 111.51. He added that the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) did not pay Coinbase with appropriated funds, which was clarified in the public request for proposal (RFP).
Coinbase made several donations to the Fairshake super PAC, including $5 million in November 2023, $15.5 million in December 2023, and $25 million on May 30, 2024. White argued that these contributions occurred within the prohibited period, noting that Coinbase’s RFP was issued on March 4, 2024, and the contract was set to end “no sooner” than June 30, 2025.
