A federal judge overseeing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case suggested that Coinbase may not be able to interrogate Chairman Gary Gensler's private communications before the Commission leads the charge.

At a hearing in the Southern District Court of New York on July 11, Coinbase lawyers argued that they should have been able to see the data on Gensler's personal devices after the SEC did not provide clear assurances about his communications with market makers. The SEC's legal team appealed to Judge Katherine Polk Failla to quash the notice of Gensler's personal communications.

“We are unable to obtain information from the SEC,” Coinbase lawyers said. “We tried to contact Gensler and the SEC, but they refused saying that he did not use his personal device to communicate about crypto.”

Although Judge Failla did not entirely agree with Coinbase's arguments, he agreed to hear them, adding that he had "strong views about the undue burden of questioning Gensler's statements before he became president." He asked both parties to submit letters to the court by July 15.

Coinbase first requested in April that Gensler produce communications from his personal devices, and later claimed that he "shared his views and sometimes communicated with market participants in an explicitly personal capacity." The discovery request targeted communications and documents containing the SEC chairman's views on crypto from 2017.#Coinbase#SEC#Crypto#Blockchain