Coinpaper 2025-04-19 10:18:03

State of Oregon Prepares Lawsuit Against Coinbase After Withdrawal of Federal SEC Case

This comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) withdrew its federal lawsuit against the exchange. Coinbase general counsel Paul Grewal stated that the pending lawsuit is an exact ”copy” of the SEC's 2023 lawsuit against the exchange, which the federal agency agreed to withdraw in February. ”In case you think I’m jumping to conclusions, the AG’s office made it clear to us that they are literally picking up where the Gary Gensler SEC left off. Seriously. This is exactly the opposite of what Americans should be focused on right now. We’ve never been closer to bipartisan legislation for digital assets and this backward lawsuit does nothing to protect consumers or solidify American leadership.” Grewal added. The lawsuit shows that the crypto industry still faces regulatory hurdles at the state level, despite several legal victories at the federal level. Opposition from state regulators could fragment cryptocurrency regulation in the U.S. and make it difficult to form a unified national policy. Several US states have withdrawn lawsuits against Coinbase following the SEC's action The SEC has changed its stance on cryptocurrencies following the resignation of former Chairman Gensler in January. His departure sparked a wave of withdrawn lawsuits, enforcement actions and investigations against cryptocurrency companies including Coinbase, Uniswap and Kraken. Several U.S. states followed the SEC's lead and also withdrew their lawsuits against Coinbase in the first quarter of this year. Vermont, one of 10 U.S. states that filed lawsuits against the exchange, withdrew its lawsuit on March 13. The legal ruling specifically cited the SEC's change in regulatory approach and the agency's creation of a cryptocurrency task force as reasons for withdrawing the suit. South Carolina rejected its lawsuit against Coinbase two weeks after Vermont withdrew its lawsuit against the exchange. The Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions became the third state-level regulator to dismiss a lawsuit against Coinbase, dismissing the litigation on March 26. Despite the legal victory, Grewal called for the federal government to end its state-by-state approach to regulating cryptocurrencies and focus on adopting clear market structure policies at the federal level.