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Securities Regulation Keyed to Cox
Coinbase, Inc. v. Securities and Exchange Commission
Citation:
126 F.4th 175 (2025)Facts
Coinbase operates a trading platform for digital assets, which are issued and transferred using blockchain technology—a decentralized public ledger system. In July 2022, Coinbase petitioned the SEC to propose new rules specifically tailored to digital assets, arguing that existing securities regulations are fundamentally incompatible with blockchain technology. Coinbase identified numerous workability issues, including that digital assets have non-investment uses, blockchain networks lack centralized entities to register securities or make disclosures, existing disclosure requirements don’t fit decentralized systems, custody rules requiring “physical possession” don’t accommodate blockchain private keys, and net capital rules would make custodying digital assets economically unsustainable. The SEC had begun enforcement actions against digital-asset firms in 2023, including filing a complaint against Coinbase in June 2023. In December 2023, the SEC denied Coinbase’s rulemaking petition in a single paragraph, stating it disagreed with workability concerns, had competing priorities, and might inform future regulatory decisions through ongoing enforcement undertakings.
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