第三巡回法院的缺点SEC未能合理解释拒绝对数字资产证券的规则制定请愿书

2025年1月13日，美国第三巡回上诉法院的一个一致小组裁定，证券和交易委员会（SEC或委员会）仅提供单段解释时违反了《行政程序法》（APA）为了拒绝“颁布规则，阐明联邦证券法法规如何以及何时适用于加密货币和代币等数字资产”。

On Jan. 13, 2025, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it offered only a one-paragraph explanation for its refusal “to promulgate rules clarifying how and when the federal securities laws apply to digital assets like cryptocurrencies and tokens.” Coinbase, Inc. v. SEC, No. 23-3202, 2025 WL 78330, at *1 (3d Cir. Jan. 13, 2025) (Ambro, J.).

2025年1月13日，美国第三巡回上诉法院的一个一致小组裁定，证券交易委员会（SEC）违反了《行政程序法》（APA），仅提供了一段解释以拒绝其拒绝“要颁布规则，阐明了联邦证券法法对加密货币和代币等数字资产的应用方式以及何时适用。” Coinbase，Inc。诉SEC，第23-3202号，2025年WL 78330，at *1（3dCir。2025，2025年1月13日）（Ambro，J。）。

Although the panel stopped short of ordering the SEC to grant a rulemaking petition that had been made by Coinbase Global — and instead remanded to the agency for a more reasoned explanation of its refusal — a concurring opinion by Judge Stephanos Bibas stated that the SEC’s decision to regulate crypto only through enforcement actions and adjudications deprived crypto companies, like Coinbase, of constitutional fair notice. Id. at *20 – *29 (Bibas, J., concurring).

尽管该小组停止命令SEC批准Coinbase Global提出的规则制定请愿书，而是将其还押给了该机构，以对其拒绝进行更合理的解释，这是斯蒂芬诺斯法官的同意意见仅通过执法行动和裁决来规范加密货币，剥夺了像Coinbase这样的加密公司，宪法公告。 ID。在 *20 - *29（Bibas，J。，同意）。

Although the SEC may seek rehearing en banc or file a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, the newly minted Republican majority at the SEC under Chairman-Designee Paul Atkins is expected to be far friendlier to the crypto industry than outgoing Chairman Gary Gensler was. That may lead the SEC to accept Coinbase’s petition and engage in the notice-and-comment rulemaking that many in the industry have been seeking in their quest to obtain regulatory certainty.

尽管SEC可能会在最高法院向Certiorari提出审查的请愿书，但在董事长保罗·阿特金斯（Paul Atkins）领导下，新近铸造的共和党多数派在SEC中，预计将对加密货币行业更友好，而不是即将卸任的主席加里·加斯勒（Gary Gensler）。这可能会导致SEC接受Coinbase的请愿书，并参与行业中许多人在寻求寻求监管确定性的通知规则制定。

Factual BackgroundAfter taking a light touch to digital assets in crypto’s early years and mostly focusing on fraud cases that “incidentally involved Bitcoin,” the SEC took its first steps toward evaluating whether digital assets themselves are securities in 2017. Id. at *2. At that point, the SEC turned its attention to transactions like “Initial Coin Offerings” and “Token Sales,” to the extent that they involved the use of digital assets as “investment contracts,” which the SEC claimed made them subject to the federal securities laws under the Howey test. Id.[1]  As Judge Bibas summarized in his concurrence, during this 2017 – 2022 period, the SEC mostly “focused on crypto assets that worked just like stock,” while bringing some enforcement actions against “a few utility tokens” under “[t]he premise . . . that utility tokens sold in initial coin offerings would appreciate.” Id. at *26 (Bibas, J., concurring).

在加密货币早年的数字资产中，事实背景易于触摸，主要集中在“偶然涉及比特币”的欺诈案件上，SEC迈出了第一步，以评估2017年数字资产本身是否是证券。在 *2。当时，SEC将注意力转移到了“初始硬币产品”和“代币销售”之类的交易上，以至于他们涉及将数字资产用作“投资合同”，SEC声称这使他们受到了联邦的约束在Howey测试下的证券法。 id。[1]正如Bibas法官在他的同意中所总结的那样，在2017年至2022年期间，SEC主要“专注于像股票一样工作的加密资产”，同时在“前提”下对“一些实用令牌”提出了一些执法行动。 。 。最初的硬币产品出售的公用事业令牌会很感激。” ID。在 *26（Bibas，J。，同意）。

In July 2022, Coinbase, a trading platform that facilitates the exchange of digital assets (including various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Chainlink), petitioned the SEC “to propose new rules addressing how and when digital assets qualify as securities subject to existing securities laws.” Id. at *4. The petition followed multiple public pronouncements by the SEC in preceding years, in which the Commission expressed its belief that the federal securities laws apply to digital assets. Id. at *2 – *4.

2022年7月，Coinbase是一个促进数字资产交换的交易平台（包括比特币，以太坊和Chainlink等各种加密货币），请向SEC申请“提出新规则，以解决数字资产如何和何时符合符合现有证券法律的证券法规的资格。” ID。在 *4。请愿书遵循了前几年SEC的多次公开声明，委员会表示，联邦证券法适用于数字资产。 ID。在 *2 - *4。

In its petition, “Coinbase expressed its view that the existing securities-law framework is “fundamentally incompatible with the operation of digital asset securities” and urged the SEC to adopt new rules tailored specifically to digital assets.” Id. at *4. The SEC ultimately denied Coinbase’s petition in December 2023, confining its reasoning to a single paragraph that cited generalized responses about workability, resource allocation issues and preferences for incremental action:

在请愿书中，“ Coinbase表示，现有的证券法框架“与数字资产证券的运营根本不相容”，并敦促SEC采用专门针对数字资产量身定制的新规则。” ID。在 *4。 SEC最终在2023年12月拒绝了Coinbase的请愿书，将其推理仅限于单个段落，该段落引用了有关可加工性，资源分配问题和增量行动的偏好的广义回应：

The Commission disagrees with the Petition’s assertion that application of existing securities statutes and regulations to crypto asset securities, issuers of those securities, and intermediaries in the trading, settlement, and custody of those securities is unworkable. Moreover, the Commission has discretion to determine the timing and priorities of its regulatory agenda, including with respect to discretionary rulemaking such as that requested in the Petition. See Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, 527 (2007). Any consideration of whether and, if so, how to alter the existing regulatory regime may be informed by, among other things, data and information provided by numerous undertakings directly or indirectly relating to crypto asset securities that the Commission is currently pursuing. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that it is appropriate to deny the Petition. The Commission is also engaged in many undertakings that relate to regulatory priorities extending well beyond crypto asset securities. The requested regulatory action would significantly constrain the Commission’s choices regarding competing priorities, and the Commission declines to undertake it at this time.

委员会不同意请愿书的主张，即将现有证券法规和法规应用于加密资产证券，这些证券的发行人以及对这些证券的交易，和解和监护中的中介人不可行。此外，委员会还具有酌处权来确定其监管议程的时间和优先事项，包括在请愿书中要求的酌处规则制定方面。参见马萨诸塞州诉EPA，549 US 497，527（2007）。任何考虑和如果是这样，如何更改现有的监管制度，则可以由直接或间接与委员会当前正在追求的加密资产证券直接或间接有关的数据和信息告知。因此，委员会得出的结论是，拒绝请愿书是适当的。该委员会还从事许多与监管优先事项有关的企业，远远超出了加密资产证券。要求的监管行动将严重限制委员会在竞争优先级方面的选择，并且委员会拒绝此时进行。

Id. at *5.

ID。在 *5。

While the petition was pending at the SEC, the SEC “expanded its enforcement agenda” to companies in the crypto space, including digital-asset exchanges like Coinbase. Id. at *4. That included filing an ongoing enforcement action against Coinbase for operating as an unregistered broker, exchange and clearing agency in June 202

在SEC的请愿书待定的同时，SEC“将其执法议程扩展到了加密货币领域的公司，包括Coinbase等数字资产交易所。 ID。在 *4。其中包括针对Coinbase提起持续的执法行动，以在202年6月作为未注册的经纪人，交易和清算机构。