Executives of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase took their company’s regulatory issues to the public on April 27, with chief legal officer Paul Grewal speaking at Consensus 2023 and appearing with CEO Brian Armstrong in a video released on YouTube.
The appeal was in response to a Wells notice received by the firm, a notification by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it may intend to carry out enforcement actions against it.
“Coinbase’s core commitment to regulatory compliance has never wavered,” Grewal said in the video, which was addressed to the chair and commissioners of the SEC.
At approximately the same time as the video appeared, Grewal was talking to an audience in Austin at Consensus 2023, where he said:
“We are literally sitting up here on stage asking for regulation, asking for rules, asking for a framework that makes sense for our particular technology so that we can be registered.”
In the video, Grewal argued that Coinbase’s business has not changed in the two years since it was approved for listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. At that time, Grewal said “the SEC’s position appeared to be that the SEC lacked statutory authority to regulate businesses like Coinbase.”
Grewal attributed the SEC’s new view to FTX. He quoted SEC…
