Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty took to his Twitter handle and responded to Coinbase’s Paul Grewal’s recent explanation of  the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) response to their petition. 

In a notable typographical error found in the SEC’s brief by Stuart, the SEC refer to their “active regulatory and enforcement agenda” in the crypto industry. It appears that the intended phrase should be “active regulation by enforcement agenda.” This slip-up has caught the attention of observers, as many in the industry are not familiar with the SEC’s explicit crypto regulatory agenda. This typographical error raises interesting questions about the SEC’s strategy.

The SEC has officially responded in court to Coinbase’s petition for clear cryptocurrency regulation. In court documents filed on May 15, the SEC stated that any rulemaking process could potentially take several years to complete. In the meantime, the SEC affirmed its intention to continue with enforcement actions.

The SEC’s response argues that it is not obligated to fulfill Coinbase’s specific requirements as outlined in its petition. Furthermore, the SEC contends that Coinbase has requested a comprehensive set of reforms and rulemaking within an unreasonably limited timeframe.

Grewal wrote on Twitter, “Today the SEC responded to Coinbase’s petition for a writ of mandamus — asking the court to require the SEC to respond just yes or no to whether it will undertake rulemaking for our industry. The SEC’s answer?   A resounding maybe.

 He said that this is the first time the SEC has explained its position in court. The SEC has stated that it will continue using enforcement actions instead of immediate rulemaking. They also mentioned that the process of creating rules may take several years and they are not in a rush.