Coinbase reaches settlement with U.S. SEC over Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, pushes for revisions to its record-keeping policies.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said the crypto exchange has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. Under the deal, the SEC will pay $150,000 and revise its record-keeping policy. The lawsuit stemmed from the SEC’s loss of nearly a year’s worth of communications between former Chair Gary Gensler and other senior officials during a peak period of crypto industry enforcement. Coinbase had previously requested the SEC to provide documents outlining how it applies securities laws to digital assets, a demand that was rejected. The exchange then filed the lawsuit and secured a court ruling in its favor. The SEC attributed the lost text messages to an automatic data deletion process. Grewal noted the SEC has previously fined financial institutions billions of dollars for similar record-keeping lapses. This February, Coinbase also reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) over another FOIA lawsuit. Coinbase said that case revealed the FDIC had ordered nearly 20 banks to halt crypto asset-related operations starting in 2022. The resulting documents later sparked congressional hearings and led a court to find the FDIC violated federal law. Grewal stated both lawsuits center on government transparency and due process, adding that the American public has a right to know whether regulators are restricting access to banking services for legitimate crypto firms through non-public means.