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The US Securities and Exchange Commission wants to \u201cunilaterally wrest regulatory authority away from the States\u201d when it comes to crypto, according to a lawsuit from 18 states<\/a>. These states want to halt the SEC\u2019s enforcement actions, so they can manage crypto regulation instead. Also named as a plaintiff on the suit is the DeFi Education Fund<\/a>, a special interest lobbyist<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Controversial SEC chair Gary Gensler<\/a> is named in the suit, along with other SEC commissioners. Gensler\u2019s treatment of crypto during his time as chair has made him a punching bag for the industry \u2014\u00a0and for Republicans such as president-elect Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gensler\u2019s SEC has notched significant wins against the crypto industry<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and in multiple court cases, judges have agreed that the SEC does have jurisdiction over crypto. \u201cThe SEC\u2019s sweeping assertion of regulatory jurisdiction is untenable,\u201d the lawsuit claims. \u201cThe digital assets implicated here are just that \u2014 assets, not investment contracts covered by federal securities laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is both annoying and highly debatable.<\/a> Coinbase, which is being sued by the SEC, has argued the suit should be dismissed because Coinbase isn\u2019t trading securities. US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled against Coinbase<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and the case is proceeding. \u201cThe \u2018crypto\u2019 nomenclature may be of recent vintage, but the challenged transactions fall comfortably within the framework that courts have used to identify securities for nearly eighty years,\u201d Failla wrote<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The states\u2019 suit also argues that a precedent called the major questions doctrine<\/a> means that the SEC shouldn\u2019t litigate against the crypto industry without Congressional approval. This, too, is highly debatable: judges rejected this line of argument from Terraform Labs<\/a> and Coinbase<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n