The head of Coinbase Brian Armstrong does not hide his negative attitude towards the SEC, which is understandable. Still, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company in June 2023, accusing it of operating as an unregistered broker, national securities exchange and clearing agency.

Coinbase crypto exchange CEO Brian Armstrong

The regulator has since been unsuccessful in its legal battle, but Coinbase has still had to spend a lot of resources defending itself. What’s particularly frustrating here is that the SEC has openly fought against members of the crypto industry, but has failed to turn out adequate rules to govern the sphere.

With that in mind, Armstrong previously said that the new SEC chairman owes Americans an apology for the actions of Gary Gensler and his subordinates. According to him, the regulator’s actions exceeded its authority and at the same time caused serious damage to the coin industry.

So now it is not surprising that Coinbase has gone on principle in the matter of co-operation with certain companies.

Who Coinbase doesn’t want to co-operate with

Brian Armstrong shared an update on the situation on his Twitter. He noted that Coinbase has notified law firms that it is willing to stop cooperating if they hire former SEC officials.

According to Armstrong, this is relevant to the people who led the campaign to “illegally destroy” the crypto industry. Here’s a quote on the matter.

We have informed all partner law firms that if they hire anyone who has committed these bad acts in the now almost previous administration, we will no longer be their client.

The senior partners at these law firms don’t seem to be aware of the crypto industry’s stance on this issue.

Armstrong specifically mentioned the law firm Milbank, headquartered in New York. It had previously hired Gurbir Grewal, former head of enforcement at the Securities Commission, as a partner.

Gurbir Grewal is a former employee of the Securities Commission

This is the man who carried out his duties during the time when the regulator launched a wave of litigation against members of the blockchain industry. As we reported earlier, Coinbase and Binance were also among them.

Brian continues.

For example, Milbank recently made a mistake and hired Gurbir. We no longer co-operate with them – and we won’t as long as he works there.

I think it’s a breach of ethics to try to illegally destroy an industry while refusing to publish clear rules. If you held a senior position there, you can’t make the excuse that you were just following orders. Such employees could have left the SEC, and many decent people did. This was not a normal tenure at the SEC.


It's important to note that Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., with $1.13 billion in revenue through the third quarter of 2024. That is, it is a major client, interaction with which brings law firms a considerable income. Therefore, the willingness of the platform to break co-operation will indeed prove to be a serious deterrent for such firms.


As Decrypt’s sources note, the SEC has launched more than a hundred enforcement cases against members of the crypto world under Gurbir’s leadership. Most importantly, the latter has defended this approach, describing it as necessary to combat fraud and protect investors.

Coinbase crypto exchange chief Brian Armstrong

The Coinbase executive noted that he does not want to pursue the so-called cancellation of these people, that is, to permanently ruin their lives. However, in this case, the digital asset industry must stand up for itself in this way.

Here’s Armstrong’s closing sentence on the matter, in which he urged colleagues from other companies to follow suit.

They can work in other areas, and I myself don’t believe in the eternal cancellation of people. However, our industry should not be filling their pockets after such abuse. Let your law firms know that hiring these people means losing you as a client.

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We will be able to test the effectiveness of this warning from Coinbase in practice soon. Still, as we noted, Gary Gensler will retire on 2025 January 2025 and SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga will step down “for personal reasons on 17 January”.

US Securities and Exchange Commission logo

Representatives of the crypto community appreciated Coinbase’s initiative. They called such actions an example of leadership and a necessary means of protecting the niche of coins.

One way or another, if now former SEC employees experience employment problems, other representatives of US regulators will surely think twice before wanting to create problems for the coin industry bypassing the legal framework next time.


Coinbase management's decision seems harsh, as the former SEC employees will clearly have to change careers in the future. However, it was the SEC that initiated the war with the coin industry. Therefore, such actions seem to be a worthy response and a warning to other employees of the regulator.


Look for more interesting stuff in our crypto chat room. There we discuss other important news affecting the current bullrun.

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