The Chopping Block: Coinbase’s Paul Grewal on Why the SEC Is Going After Crypto So Aggressively - Ep. 538

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra, chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang goes in depth with Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal to discuss Grayscale’s win in its court case against the SEC, Coinbase’s ongoing dust-up with the SEC, the onerous new crypto reporting regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury, and the unsettling legal arguments behind the government crackdown on Tornado Cash. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Paul considers the court ruling in favor of Grayscale in its case against the SEC “nothing short of monumental”
• how much it actually matters if a spot Bitcoin ETF gets approved
• what options the SEC has now to pursue its position
• why BlackRock may have applied for its spot Bitcoin ETF when it did
• how the SEC 'changed its tune' and went from approving Coinbase’s S1 to suing them in a federal court, according to Paul
• how the collapse of FTX may have affected the SEC’s view of Coinbase
• why Coinbase has decided to wage its battle against the SEC so publicly 
• when Paul expects a final decision to be made on the SEC’s lawsuit against Coinbase
• what Paul would do to regulate the digital asset industry if he were Gary Gensler
• whether the Treasury Department’s extensive proposed reporting regulations mean the crypto industry is “screwed” 
• why Paul believes that the government’s crackdown on Tornado Cash is "dead wrong on the law"

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest:

• Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase
• Previous appearances on Unchained: 
• Just a Coincidence? Coinbase and Polygon Lawyers See Bad Omens in SEC Crackdown
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’

DisclosuresLinks

• Unchained: 
• Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against SEC Over Denial of Bid to Convert GBTC Into a Bitcoin ETF
• SEC Issues Coinbase a Wells Notice
• Tornado Cash Cofounder Arrested, Another Sanctioned by U.S. Government
• Bitcoin ETFs Explained: What Are They & How Do They Work?
• Coinbase: We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead.
• TechCrunch: SEC settles first NFT enforcement case, fines LA media company $6M
• The Block: Treasury, IRS release proposed crypto tax reporting rules

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