May 15 (Reuters) - Coinbase said on Thursday it

strongly believes a regulatory investigation by the U.S.

securities regulator into its disclosures of monthly transacting

users should not continue.

The statement follows a New York Times report that said the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether

Coinbase's user numbers in past disclosures were accurate.

"This is a hold-over investigation from the prior

administration about a metric we stopped reporting two and a

half years ago, which was fully disclosed to the public," Paul

Grewal, the crypto exchange's chief legal officer, added in an

emailed statement to Reuters.