US Courts Have Serially Rejected Crypto Industry’s ‘Decade’s Worth of Arguments’ – SEC Director

Over the past decade, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has contended with “significant non-compliance” and “creative attempts” by cryptocurrency market participants to avoid its jurisdiction. According to the SEC’s enforcement director, the commission has regularly prevailed in its numerous court cases against these participants.

A ‘Decade’s Worth of Arguments’

In the past decade, the SEC has grappled with non-compliant crypto participants and their “creative attempts” to evade its jurisdiction, said the organization’s enforcement director. In his prepared remarks, the director, Gurbir Grewal, disclosed that some critics have gone so far as to accuse the Commission of regulating by enforcement.
Grewal stated that many of the accusations against the SEC are an attempt to prevent the Commission from subjecting the crypto industry to rules that apply to all other industries. The SEC director branded the crypto industry’s “decade’s worth of arguments” a distraction designed to obscure the real risks posed by crypto markets. He added:
“And most importantly, a decade’s worth of arguments that have been serially rejected in one way or another by court after court. As we have consistently maintained, and as court after court has confirmed, the federal securities laws apply equally to everyone. You don’t get your own rules.”

The SEC is Winning and Losing Court Battles

To support his claims that U.S. courts have been siding with the SEC, Grewal cites a New York judge’s recent rejection of Coinbase’s motion to dismiss. In her ruling, Katherine Polk Failla asserted that the commission had successfully established that Coinbase was “engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities.”
However, as reported by Bitcoin.com News, Judge Failla also ruled against the SEC’s claim that Coinbase functions as an unregistered broker through its proprietary crypto wallet service. Even though the SEC has suffered a string of court losses, Grewal insisted that the commission is winning its legal battle against the crypto industry.
Besides claiming the commission’s success on the legal front, the SEC director also cited the findings of a 2023 Pew Research Center study to support an assertion that more U.S. residents are becoming less enthusiastic about crypto.
In concluding his remarks, Grewal however acknowledged that the SEC has fallen short in some areas, which may have impacted public confidence in the commission. To remedy this, the director said the SEC must acknowledge its mistakes and recommit to “doing everything [it] can to never compromise that reservoir.”
What is your reaction to Gurbir Grewal’s remarks? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.