Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewal criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for deviating from its own Wells notice process, according to his X post on Tuesday.
In SEC’s Monday legal filing in part of its lawsuit against crypto platform Debt Box, the agency said its staff “typically provides a thorough explanation of the evidence” used to prove its potential charges on an entity. “We received no ‘thorough explanation’ of the evidence of what assets supposedly gave rise to securities transactions. We weren't told what assets were at issue at all,” Grewal added. “Why would the government not follow its "typical" process in our case, and what does that say about its claims?”
There are mounting arguments that cite the SEC’s alleged abuse of power in its enforcement actions against crypto companies. When trading app Robinhood received the SEC’s Wells notice earlier this month for alleged securities violations, Rodrigo Silva-Herzog, special counsel at Cooley LLP, had commented on X that the SEC is on its “carpet bombing campaign” against crypto.