SEC Settles Coinbase FOIA Suit Over Gensler-Era Records

Coinbase, through research firm History Associates, used the Freedom of Information Act to seek U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records on Ethereum and other crypto investigations, then sued in June 2024 after the agency withheld material. The case became a test of regulatory transparency during former Chair Gary Gensler’s enforcement campaign, particularly after the SEC—an agency that had penalized financial firms for deficient communications retention—acknowledged gaps in its own recordkeeping.

In a joint filing on July 22, 2026, the SEC and History Associates asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the case under a settlement. The agency agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees, release two previously withheld documents and review its text-message preservation practices. An inspector general’s report found that avoidable IT failures and a factory reset erased nearly 11 months of Gensler’s texts, spanning Oct. 18, 2022, through Sept. 6, 2023.