A New York judge has marked the calendar for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vs. Coinbase case, where the two parties involved would be able to voice their initial arguments.
The joint request from the SEC and Coinbase to settle dates for opening briefs and all subsequent responses was approved by the New York judge Katherine Polk Failla. The news was revealed by Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal in a tweet posted today, 24 July.
Coinbase’s motion and opening brief was agreed to be done on 4 August, as per the initial document submitted by the two parties. This also included the time frames for various subsequent supporting documents and responses and the respective length of the documents.
On the other hand, no agreement was reached on a deadline for the SEC’s opposition brief. Coinbase had proposed the same to happen 30 days after its opening motion and brief, whereas the SEC proposed 60.
Dated 20 July, the judge’s response to the application included an approval granted “in part”. Along with confirming Coinbase’s deadline of 4 August for the initial brief, it also stated that all amicus briefs in support of Defendants’ motion to be due on or before 11 August. The judge also made it clear that the former brief should not exceed 30 pages whereas the latter should not go beyond 20 pages.
The disagreement over a date for the SEC’s opposition brief was also settled. It is now due on or before 10 October, where Coinbase’s reply should come by 24 October or sooner within 15 pages.
The SEC had filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange in June for offering unregistered securities. Following this, the regulatory bodies in 10 U.S. states started their own legal proceedings, prompting the suspension of certain services.
As a result, in the next month, Coinbase said users in California, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin would be temporarily restricted from using certain staking services until further notice.
Explaining its move, the exchange stated in its blog post: “We strongly disagree with any allegation that our staking services are securities. But we will fully comply with the preliminary state orders where required, even though that comes before we’ve had an opportunity to defend ourselves.”
Its CEO, Brian Armstrong, is also reportedly said to meet with lawmakers in the U.S. The discussion would revolve around the legislation of digital assets and other similar topics.
Coinbase is not the only crypto exchange that has been in the hot seat over regulatory issues in the U.S. Ripple Labs Inc. has long been fighting a case with the same regulatory watchdog, where the SEC alleged that Ripple raised funds through the sale of XRP in an unregistered securities offering to investors in the U.S. and worldwide.
A recent ruling in this case widely favoured Ripple as it concluded that while sales of Ripple’s XRP token directly to institutional investors violated the SEC’s rules, but offerings to retail investors on exchanges didn’t.
