In a fascinating move, Coinbase recently added Paul Clement to its Board and publicly stated that his addition will help the company push back against the SEC. The addition of Clement, who is fresh off a victory at the Supreme Court doing away with Chevron deference for agency decision-making, is yet another recent sign that the crypto industry is starting to go on the offensive against regulatory agencies that it perceives as overstepping their bounds.

Over the coming few months, be on the lookout for ways the crypto industry will attempt to shape its own legal destiny through proactive rather than reactive litigation. This shift will also be interesting against the backdrop of the upcoming election and its aftermath. Answers may ultimately come from Congress rather than the courts, but that isn't going to stop both crypto companies and regulators from battling it out in litigation.

Clement, a partner at Clement & Murphy PLLC, will be a member of Coinbase's audit and compliance committee and will "advise Coinbase's efforts to push back against the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's] overreach and fight for clear rules of the road for digital assets," according to the blog post.

Clement joins the board as Coinbase fights claims that it permitted the illegal trading of unregistered securities on its crypto platform . . . . Coinbase has argued that the SEC never identified any tokens listed on its platform that it believed were securities. The company is also pushing for access to the private communications of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whose behind-the-scenes communications with market participants could call into question his public position that the majority of digital tokens are securities to be regulated, according to Coinbase.

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