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Third Circuit Orders SEC to Clarify How Securities Regs Apply to Digital Assets

By Michael A. Mora
February 01, 2025

In a 72-page opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 13 to clarify for Coinbase Global Inc. “how and when the federal securities laws apply to digital assets” like cryptocurrencies and tokens.

“We properly remand to the SEC to explain itself; it should not give yet another poor explanation in an already-long line of them,” Third Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas ruled in the concurrence. “New inventions create new fraud risks, and the agency needs to guard against them. But sporadically enforcing ill-fitting rules against crypto companies that are trying to follow the law goes way beyond fighting fraud. It targets a whole industry and risks de facto banning it.”

Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer for Coinbase, noted in an interview that the Third Circuit ruling sets one of the “most important precedents in the last several years” in administrative rule-making for general counsel and companies. For one, Grewal said, “Don’t be afraid of insisting on upholding the rule of law even when the United States is on the other side of the v.”

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