Coinbase amicus curiae filing against SEC's making of a Catch-22

The full pdf document: https://assets.ctfassets.net/c5bd0wqjc7v0/XSLKViH53PdDVHAyAi7zC/651ad43341fa3960424ac0291c6546a8/Beba_v._SEC_-_Proposed_Amicus_Brief.pdf

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Excerpts:

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The upshot is that the digital-asset industry is caught in a Catch-22 of the SEC’s making:

The SEC sues digital-asset developers and exchanges seeking punitive, retroactive penalties for their purported failure to “come in and register.” But the agency simultaneously refuses to explain on the record, through a rulemaking, how the compliance it demands is even possible.

The SEC has even openly denied that it has an obligation to make compliance with its rules feasible at all.

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Nor has the SEC explained how it reads the securities laws to encompass digital assets when many traditional assets—including real estate, commodities, and trading cards—have never been subject to SEC jurisdiction, even though they possess attributes the SEC appears to regard as indicative of a security.

Instead, as one court recently recognized in rejecting the SEC’s novel view, the agency has spoken “out of both sides of its mouth” and has “le[ft] th[at] Court, the industry, and future buyers and sellers with no clear differentiating principle between tokens in the marketplace that are securities and tokens that aren’t.”

In response, the SEC changed its position again, expressing its “regre[t]” for the “confusion” it created.

“Confusion” is an understatement, as even a small sampling of the SEC’s contradictory positions over the past couple of years reveals:

(refer to chart in https://x.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1850973092824433012)

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