Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency exchange, has moved to certify an appeal in response to the SEC’s complaint against it.
The legal team representing Coinbase submitted a brief to the court on April 12, requesting authorization to pursue an interlocutory appeal.
That something must be contractually agreed upon in order for there to be an “investment contract” was the central issue. Even if the SEC doesn’t agree, Coinbase thinks it does.
When other parts of a case are still underway, it is possible to appeal a trial court’s decision via an interlocutory appeal.
Providing crypto asset trading was the basis for the SEC’s June 2023 lawsuit against Coinbase, which said that the company was acting as a broker-dealer and an unregistered securities exchange.
Due to the lack of post-sale responsibilities or contractual commitments by the issuers, Coinbase argued that the digital asset transactions in question did not contain “investment contracts” under the Howey test, and therefore, the allegations against them were dismissed.
Coinbase is now bringing an appeal, challenging the classification of digital asset transactions devoid of post-sale responsibilities as “investment contracts” and, therefore, securities regulated by the SEC.
According to Grewal, “The SEC itself has made the exact points,” so Coinbase isn’t the only one thinking this way.
They made it clear that there is a “controlling point[] of law to which there are strong grounds for difference of opinion” and acknowledged the “industry-wide relevance” of the issue at hand in the Ripple case.
A partial success for Coinbase came in April when the court partially upheld the exchange’s ability to conduct secondary transactions of cryptocurrency assets without violating the Securities Exchange Act.
In its ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency, the SEC announced on April 10 that it will be suing decentralized exchange Uniswap.
Also Read: Peter Schiff Hits Bitcoin as Price Falls Amid Iran-Israel Tension
