Coinbase has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that began in 2024. The agreement requires the SEC to review its record preservation practices, release two previously withheld documents, and pay $150,000 in attorney fees to History Associates, the consulting firm that filed the FOIA requests on Coinbase’s behalf.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal disclosed that the SEC lost nearly 11 months of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages—spanning October 18, 2022 through September 6, 2023—during a period of heightened crypto enforcement. While the settlement does not establish intentional destruction, the SEC Inspector General attributed the missing texts to avoidable technical and records-management errors. Grewal argued that regulators should meet the same recordkeeping standards they enforce, noting the agency had imposed over $1 billion in penalties on financial firms for similar lapses.
The resolution closes one prong of Coinbase’s broader transparency push. A separate FOIA case against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation settled in February, leading the FDIC to alter its disclosure practices after Coinbase sought internal “pause letters” that had asked banks to delay crypto-related activities. Grewal stated that both lawsuits forced agencies to improve disclosure and reduce the risk of exceeding their authority in secret.
The SEC settlement comes after the agency’s earlier enforcement litigation against Coinbase was dropped in early 2025 under new leadership. Court filings confirm the $150,000 payment and the agency’s commitment to review how it preserves official communications, though no judicial finding of intentional record destruction was made.
