Coinbase has sued the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) over their reluctance to release crucial information covered by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The suits against the federal agencies were filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia on 27 June.
The dispute arises from these agencies, mainly the SEC, going out of their way to blackball the crypto industry from the larger financial ecosystem. Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terret broke the news on X, “@coinbase is looking to shed light on what it describes as a “deliberate and concerted effort by the @SECGov, @FDICgov, and other financial regulators” to pressure banks to deny crypto firms access to the federal banking system.”
Coinbase feels these agencies are exercising their power to obstruct crypto assets and other related innovations from accessing banking services, preventing crypto businesses from growing and witnessing larger acceptance. Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, mentioned on X, “Financial regulators have used multiple tools at their disposal to try to cripple the digital-asset industry. @SECGov has claimed sweeping authority, but refuses to provide any rules, let alone consistent or coherent ones.”
He continued, talking about the FDIC, “While @FDICgov pressured financial institutions to cut off the industry from the banking system.” And then, about the FOIA compliance violation, “Today we filed lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act for requests we made over a year ago seeking important information to which we, and the public, are entitled.”
Coinbase’s suit also questions the SEC’s reasoning behind considering Ether a security and going after Ethereum and service providers in the US offering services involving Ether. Many businesses received Wells Notices from the SEC for listing the asset and offering Ether-related services.
History Associates, the consulting firm behind Enigma MPC—a crypto firm sued by the SEC for offering unregistered securities through its native ENG tokens—has joined Coinbase in the battle. It brought a lawsuit of its own against the FDIC, stating, “This FOIA lawsuit seeks to bring to light the FDIC’s role in that unlawful scheme.” The suit also mentioned that the FDIC and the SEC do everything in their power to “cripple the digital-asset industry.”
Image by Sergei Tokmakov, Esq. https://Terms.Law from Pixabay
