Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal: NYT’s SEC Crypto Story Admits No Impropriety—So Why the Headline?
Paul Grewal has criticized The New York Times for what he says is a deceptive narrative surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) pullback from crypto enforcement.
The Coinbase CLO (Chief Legal Officer) argues that the paper’s personal reporting undermines its headline and broader narrative.
Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal Pushes Back on NYT’s SEC Crypto Enforcement Narrative
In a submit on X (Twitter), Grewal highlighted a key disclosure included in the on-line model of the Times’ December 14 investigation into the SEC’s shifting stance towards digital belongings following Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.
According to the article, reporters discovered “no indication that the president or the White House pressured the SEC to go simple on particular crypto corporations,” and “didn’t discover proof that the corporations had tried to affect the circumstances in opposition to them by means of donations or enterprise ties to the Trump household.”
“I do recognize the reporter’s candor in the feedback to the on-line model of the story,” Grewal wrote. “It exhibits the headline and the general narrative to be much more twisted.”
The Times investigation documented a pointy decline in crypto enforcement actions underneath the SEC throughout Trump’s second time period.
The report discovered that the company eased up on greater than 60% of the crypto-related circumstances it inherited, pausing or abandoning lawsuits in opposition to a number of high-profile corporations. These included Gemini, run by the Winklevoss twins, and Binance, whose case was dropped entirely.
The paper framed the pullback as uncommon, noting that it’s uncommon for the SEC to retreat so broadly from enforcement in opposition to a single business.
While the article famous that a few of the corporations that benefited had executives or associates who donated to Trump’s political operation, it concurrently acknowledged that there was no proof of presidential intervention or improper affect.
The SEC additionally rejected claims of favoritism, stating that authorized and coverage issues drove the shift in enforcement. These embody questions on the company’s authority over a good portion of the crypto market.
Critics Say SEC Enforcement Rollback Was Predictable, Not Politically Driven
Grewal’s critique follows broader pushback from crypto coverage commentators who say the Times failed to supply important historic context.
Alex Thorn, head of firmwide analysis at Galaxy, argued that the story depends on the false assumption that the prior administration’s aggressive enforcement marketing campaign represented a standard regulatory posture.
According to Thorn, the Biden-era SEC superior novel and highly contested interpretations of securities law to pursue widespread enforcement in opposition to crypto corporations, an method that confronted:
- Years of bipartisan criticism,
- Repeated courtroom challenges, and
- Public dissents from Republican commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda.
When these commissioners moved from a dissenting minority to a controlling majority after Gary Gensler stepped down in January, Thorn argues the ensuing coverage reversal was fully predictable.
“It’s not ‘irregular’ in any respect for the SEC to drop these circumstances,” Thorn wrote in a separate submit. “If you overturn the underlying premises, after all the overlaid circumstances should fall away.”
The Times acknowledged that the SEC’s present Republican commissioners opposed many crypto lawsuits lengthy earlier than Trump returned to workplace.
Still, critics argue that this context was overshadowed by a story that implied political impropriety with out offering proof.
The dispute highlights a rising rift between traditional media coverage and the crypto industry’s interpretation of regulatory modifications in Washington.
As the SEC pivots away from regulation by enforcement towards clearer rulemaking, the debate highlights a central query for US crypto coverage: whether or not authorized and philosophical shifts inside the company might be precisely distinguished from political affect in the public discourse.
The submit Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal: NYT’s SEC Crypto Story Admits No Impropriety—So Why the Headline? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
