Overview
- The SEC agreed on July 22 to pay $150,000 to resolve Coinbase’s FOIA lawsuit and to produce remaining responsive records, with the case to be dismissed once production is complete.
- An SEC Office of Inspector General review found that agency technology staff performed a factory reset on former Chair Gary Gensler’s agency phone on Sept. 6, 2023 that permanently deleted texts covering Oct. 18, 2022 through Sept. 6, 2023.
- The Inspector General concluded the loss resulted from avoidable recordkeeping and backup failures, and the settlement requires the SEC to change its policies for preserving official communications.
- Coinbase says the FOIA campaign exposed broader regulatory conduct, citing an earlier FDIC settlement that produced documents suggesting private guidance to banks to curb crypto activity in 2022.
- The settlement closes a major transparency fight but does not resolve policy questions about which tokens are securities, leaving rulemaking, congressional action, and market reactions as the next drivers of U.S. crypto oversight.