With SEC fight over, Coinbase's top legal exec Grewal moves on, and others reassigned

Policy With SEC fight over, Coinbase's top legal exec Grewal moves on, and others reassigned Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal will depart the exchange, though he'll continue as an adviser, he said Thursday. By Nikhilesh De , Jesse Hamilton Jul 9, 2026, 8:31 p.m. 2 min read Make preferred on Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Make preferred on Paul Grewal (CoinDesk) Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal is leaving the company after its high-profile, years-long legal fight with U.S. regulators, and the U.S. exchange also announced further changes to its senior leadership. Grewal is departing to work at a startup, according to a Thursday announcement from Coinbase. Molly Abraham will now lead the company's legal team as general counsel, and Ryan Van Grack will become vice chairman, in what's anticipated to be a broader and more public-facing role. "Leading Coinbase's legal team through the biggest fight of our industry has been the single greatest achievement of my six-year tenure," Grewal said in a statement. "Our legal wins helped ensure crypto not only had a future in this country, but could flourish." His statement continued on to say he would continue as an adviser to Coinbase, and would work on Coinbase's trust charter work through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Abraham has been at Coinbase since March 2021, running multiple legal teams as the company's vice president of legal. Prior to that, she was general counsel at an electric flying car startup, according to her LinkedIn. Van Grack, a former general counsel at Citadel Securities, had led Coinbase's widespread litigation work. Coinbase's biggest legal fight came from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued the company in 2023, alleging it was operating as an unregistered broker, clearinghouse and exchange for securities. The SEC, helmed at the time by former Chair Gary Gensler, had filed similar suits against a number of exchanges. The regulator dropped the suit after President Donald Trump retook office. The exchange also fought in court to view internal SEC documents about its approach to regulating crypto, as well as a petition to force the SEC to establish crypto rules during Grewal's tenure. Coinbase Latest Crypto News 1 Arbitrum jumps 19% benefitting from Robinhood's $568 million onchain trading frenzy 3 minutes ago 2 Newest version of crypto Clarity Act may drop as soon as next week, sources say 57 minutes ago 3 Billions flowing out of bitcoin ETFs and private credit funds suggest rising market risks 2 hours ago 4 AI contracts, not bitcoin, now drive miner valuations, and Cipher and TeraWulf look cheap, says analyst 4 hours ago 5 Ethereum's newest nonprofit wants to become Wall Street's guide to crypto 5 hours ago 6 Aave rolls out vaults for yield-hungry fintech investors 7 hours ago 7 Age verification is the surveillance nobody voted for 7 hours ago 8 Over $7.2 billion have migrated from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP as Mantle joins exodus 8 hours ago 9 Pricing houses in bitcoin exposes dollar's loss of value 9 hours ago 10 Swift rolls out new blockchain ledger to bring 24/7 banking to 17 global giants 9 hours ago Latest Research SpaceX IPO Drives Tokenized Equity Volumes to Record as Stablecoin Market Cap Falls SpaceX IPO Drives Tokenized Equity Volumes to Record as Stablecoin Market Cap Falls Stablecoin market cap fell to $312B in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD, while tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86B. By CoinDesk Research Jul 7, 2026 Stablecoin market cap fell to $312B in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD, while tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86B. Why it matters : Stablecoin market cap fell to $312B in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD, while tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86B. View Full Report More From Policy Newest version of crypto Clarity Act may drop as soon as next week, sources say Citadel abandons multi-year crypto lawsuit to focus on bankruptcy order against an ex-employee Reserve Bank of India still favors crypto prohibition to curtail tax evasion: Reuters