US SEC: Coinbase's rulemaking request should be rejected, SEC expects to make "recommendations" within 120 days

In a court filing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that Coinbase’s request for rulemaking does not make sense and that the request for authorization should be denied for the reasons discussed in the SEC’s response. Given the current circumstances, committee staff expects to be able to make "recommendations" to the committee within 120 days, and the committee's lawyers have until October 11, 2023, to provide the court with a status report when that period expires. The Committee requests that, if the court decides not to deny the request for authorization, that no action be taken by the court until this report is filed. Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, criticized the response on Twitter, saying it ignored clear statements from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler affirming that they had no intention of issuing new rules, conflating the evidence those statements provided for a decision with the argument that the statement itself was a decision.