The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Coinbase’s appeal of its case against the regulator should be denied. Last month, Coinbase filed an interlocutory appeal after a judge’s decision allowed litigation involving the SEC and the platform to proceed without being dismissed. In the appeal, Coinbase claimed a disagreement around the Howey test, a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case often cited by the SEC to determine whether an asset meets the criteria of an investment contract and is therefore a security.
The SEC countered on Friday, saying “there is no substantive disagreement.”
The SEC also said in its filing: “More broadly, it is clear that Coinbase, which dislikes Howey and the current securities regulatory framework, has decided to arrange its business affairs in a manner that would likely make it costly to comply with existing law. But Coinbase’s decision to do so, and its desire to rewrite decades of established legal precedent consistent with its own policy objectives and business needs, does not constitute sufficient grounds for premature certification of an appeal in this case.” Interlocutory appeals are typically filed before the end of a proceeding and are unlikely to be granted. The SEC attempted an interlocutory appeal in its case against Ripple last year, but it was ultimately denied.