Coinbase, through its Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, has asked the SEC to reconsider the ban on the regulator’s employees owning crypto assets. In open letters to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Acting Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Jamison Greer, Grewal said that the current restrictions prevent regulators from truly understanding the technology they are supposed to oversee.

The ban is based on OGE Directive 22-04 from July 2022, which classifies cryptocurrencies as non-public assets that are not exempt from stocks. Grewal emphasized that the SEC staff working on crypto market regulation lacks practical experience, which could negatively affect the quality of the new rules.

As a solution, Coinbase proposes to introduce exceptions for members of the SEC crypto working group so that they can legally own and use digital assets. This, according to Grewal, will help regulators better understand the technology and make more informed decisions.