Crypto Exchange Coinbase is trying to discover how much the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has spent enforcing actions against crypto companies.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a statement on March 3 that he had filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the SEC to find out how many investigations and enforcement actions were filed against crypto companies between April 17, 2021 and January 20, 2025.
Crypto Exchange also seeks information on the number of employees involved in the enforcement action, the number of third-party contractors used, and all of their costs.
Source: Paul Grewal
“We see that the previous SEC’s regulatory-by-regulation approach costs American innovation, global leadership and employment, but how much did taxpayer dollars cost?” grewal said.
“We also want to learn more about the previous SEC’s infamous crypto assets and cyber units within the enforcement division. What was the budget, how many employees were working, and how much time did the employees do?”
Founded in 2017, SEC’s crypto assets and cyber units brought about fraudulent, non-registered crypto assets provision and enforcement action against the platform. The unit was replaced by Cyber ​​and Emerging Technology Units (CETUs) on February 20th.
Grewal is happy to “do what you need” to “get the big picture” but crypto exchanges are happy to do what you need to do to get the requested information.
Coinbase wants to know how many employees worked for the SEC enforcement action against the crypto exchange and how much taxpayers would cost. Source: FOIA Services Office
A SEC spokesman declined to comment.
Former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler resigned on January 20, 2025, despite being known for his hard-line stance on cryptography regulations.
While Gensler has been at the helm of regulators since 2021, the SEC has taken a proactive regulatory stance against Crypto, raising 100 regulatory measures against businesses.
Related: SEC drops investigations for NFT Marketplace Opensea
Jensler set out on the same day code-friendly Donald Trump began his second term as US president. Trump had promised to fire Gensler if he was elected.
Following the exit from Gensler, the SEC has opted out of the scope of the lawsuit against crypto companies.
Coinbase was sued by the SEC in June 2023, claiming that the exchange is not registered as a broker, national stock exchange or liquidation agency.
The lawsuit was removed on February 27th, and the SEC agreed to voluntarily dismiss all cases linked to Coinbase and Coinbase Global on bias and ended the case permanently.
The SEC dropped the lawsuit against Crypto Exchange Kraken on March 3rd. This follows many other layoffs, including the same day’s uneven token (NFT) conglomerate Yugalab and other layoffs that exchange Gemini on February 26th.
We also recently concluded our investigation by UnisWAP distributed exchange and UnisWap Labs, the developer behind online brokerage company Robinhood Crypto, who received a Wells notification on May 4th.
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