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Coinbase has lost a request to have a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission tossed.
A Manhattan federal judge ruled that the case claiming the cryptocurrency exchange engaged in unregistered sales of securities could be heard by a jury at trial.
The SEC sued Coinbase in June to block the company from continuing to sell the alleged unregisters securities sales.
"The Court finds that the SEC adequately alleges that Coinbase, through its Staking Program, engaged in the unregistered offer and sale of securities," Judge Katherine Polk Failla wrote in a ruling released Wednesday morning reviewed by CNBC.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal says the company was expecting the ruling.
"We remain confident in our legal arguments, we look forward to proving we're right," Grewal said in a post on X. "We are eager for the opportunity to take discovery from the SEC for the first time, and we appreciate the Court's continued consideration of our case."
Today, the Court decided that our SEC case will move forward on most of the claims, but dismissed the claims against Coinbase Wallet. We were prepared for this, and we look forward to uncovering more about the SEC’s internal views and discussions on crypto regulation. 1/6
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) March 27, 2024
Coinbase previously claimed that purchasing digital coins on an exchange platform is like collecting Beanie Babies.
At a previous hearing, Coinbase argued that trading cryptos should not be subject to SEC jurisdiction since traders/buyers don't gain rights as part of their purchases.
Failla set an April 19 deadline for the parties to agree on a case scheduling plan, industry news site CoinDesk reported.
She did dismiss some charges against the company's Coinbase Wallet.
