Coinbase has joined a trade group and other groups in arguing the SEC’s case against Ripple’s XRP threatens the broader crypto industry.
The popular Crypto exchange has petitioned a federal court for permission to file a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief in the ongoing lawsuit between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs.
In doing so, Coinbase joins the Blockchain Association, an crypto industry lobbyist group, “SpendTheBits”, a crypto payment app that uses the XRP token and the lawyer John Deaton in the attempt to shore up Ripple’s case against the SEC, which filed the lawsuit against Ripple XRP at the end of 2020 alleging that Ripple Labs sold XRP as an unregistered security.
Coinbase’s filing stated “Given the absence of SEC rulemaking for the cryptocurrency industry, the question of whether the SEC has given fair notice before bringing an enforcement action against sales of one of the thousands of unique digital assets will often be highly fact-intensive, which makes it particularly ill-suited for adjudication on summary judgment,”
Coinbase also argued that the SEC has been inconsistent about its enforcement towards the crypto industry, which they argue creates “uncertainty” for companies involved in the sector. The filing added “Ripple and others have been the subject of extensive enforcement scrutiny while others – with nearly identical products or services – have apparently been subject to none.”
