Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, is seeking to have its legal dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) elevated to a higher court. After its attempt to dismiss the SEC’s enforcement case against it was rejected in federal court, Coinbase’s lawyers filed an interim appeal on Friday, aiming to raise a question for further deliberation: whether digital asset trading, which does not impose any obligations on the original issuers of the assets, falls within the purview of SEC-regulated investment contracts. Coinbase’s filing describes this inquiry as “a novel legal question in a regulatory action against a market leader that could shape or distort a trillion-dollar industry.” This request must be approved by the court, including U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who denied Coinbase’s request to dismiss the SEC’s initial allegations of unlawful operations by the exchange.
