The Chamber of Digital Commerce today filed an amicus brief in SEC v. Coinbase, requesting that the Court dismiss the case and put an end to the SEC’s most recent attempt to regulate the digital asset industry despite the lack of delegated legislative authority.  

The Chamber argues the SEC’s continued aggressive enforcement posture towards digital asset companies, such as Coinbase, is inappropriately stifling innovation across the trillion-dollar U.S. digital asset industry – clearly a violation of the major questions doctrine.  The SEC’s action against Coinbase is particularly problematic in light of the fact that both chambers of Congress are considering legislation that would specify and constrain the SEC’s regulatory authority over digital assets. As legislative debates continue, Congress has clearly not conferred the authority to the SEC to regulate all digital assets as securities. Enforcement actions that suggest otherwise raise constitutional concerns regarding separation of powers and due process, putting the digital assets industry and its stakeholders at risk.  

“This case is yet another example of the SEC acting outside of its legislative mandate and regulating by enforcement. We’ve called on the SEC to issue guidance for digital asset issuers and exchanges repeatedly since 2016 and still no progress has been made to provide the industry with clear rules of the road. We must halt the SEC’s targeting of members of the digital asset industry on a one off, unexpected basis,” said Perianne Boring, Founder and CEO of The Chamber of Digital Commerce. “We are hopeful that the Court will consider the arguments laid out in our brief, and we will continue to fight against the SEC’s  overreach.”  

Joseph Evans, Co-Chair of the FinTech & Blockchain Practice and Head of Crypto Litigation and Regulatory Defense at McDermott, Will & Emery said, “The SEC has failed the digital asset industry by refusing to work cooperatively through the provision of prospective guidance. Rather, the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement campaign disserves the millions of law-abiding individuals that use digital assets and the professionals that work in the industry.” 

**Chamber experts are available for comment. Contact press@digitalchamber.org to schedule an interview**