ChainCatcher news: According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked the Northern District Court of California to dismiss three defenses raised by Kraken against allegations of illegal behavior of cryptocurrency trading platforms. In a motion filed on November 5, the regulator dismissed Kraken's allegations that securities laws are unclear and how they apply to virtual assets, and the exchange's assertion that it was not given fair notice that its actions were considered to violate securities laws.
It also asked the court to reject Kraken’s “substantial issues doctrine” defense, a legal doctrine established by the Supreme Court that states agencies cannot expand their regulatory powers without explicit authorization from Congress.
In November 2023, the SEC sued Kraken for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. The SEC said it believed Kraken had illegally earned hundreds of millions of dollars by facilitating the buying and selling of crypto-asset securities since September 2018. Kraken filed to dismiss the case, a motion that was denied in August.