SEC Requests Four-Month Extension to Submit Documents in Coinbase Case

Following the current legal battle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and crypto exchange Coinbase, the SEC's legal team has requested the court to allow them until February 2025 to produce "hundreds of thousands of documents" as part of discovery proceedings with the exchange platform.

In a Sept. 18 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC demands a federal judge to grant a 4-month extension to complete discovery with Coinbase. The initial deadline was Oct. 18. However, after Coinbase partially won a motion to compel discovery, the SEC is now required to provide details on its treatment for tokens.

"The SEC is undertaking a review of at least 133,582 unique documents," said the filing. "The requested extension will provide the SEC the necessary time to comply with the Court's Order."

If granted, the SEC could have until Feb. 18 to produce documents related to fact discovery. Depositions and related documents in expert discovery could have a deadline of April 22.

As U.S. courts handle cases involving cryptocurrency exchanges, lawmakers are debating the SEC's role in regulating digital assets. On September 18, the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion discussed whether the SEC, under Chair Gary Gensler, has taken a "politicised approach" to the crypto sector.

The SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase is one of many in which the regulator has accused exchanges of offering and selling tokens as unregistered securities. In 2024, a judge ordered Ripple Labs to pay $125 million to the SEC after a three-year legal battle, and Terraform Labs settled with the regulator for over $4 billion.

Other ongoing cases involve Binance, Kraken, and other crypto firms. It remains uncertain whether a change in SEC leadership after the 2024 U.S. elections would have a major impact on these court cases.