SEC Settles Coinbase Records Suit, to Pay $150,000 After Deleted Texts Dispute
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has settled a lawsuit with Coinbase over access to internal documents, agreeing to pay $150,000 in legal fees.
Cointelegraph reported on July 23 that the SEC and Coinbase filed a settlement agreement in court that day, ending litigation that had lasted about two years. Coinbase had sued to obtain internal records from the regulator during the Biden administration as the agency stepped up enforcement against the crypto industry.
The settlement follows a 2025 SEC internal audit that found roughly a year of text messages between former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and other senior officials had been deleted because of a "preventable error." In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published that day, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote that the agency charged with overseeing corporate recordkeeping had lost a large number of text messages exchanged by Gensler and other officials during the height of its anti-crypto campaign. He added that the SEC would pay $150,000 and had improved its records-retention policies.
The resolution marks another legal victory for Coinbase since the Trump administration took office. Under Chair Paul Atkins, the SEC has adopted a more crypto-friendly stance and in 2025 withdrew a series of major enforcement actions against several crypto companies, including Coinbase.
Grewal will shift to an advisory role effective July 31. Coinbase Vice President of Legal Molly Abraham and Ryan VanGrack will assume the roles of general counsel and vice chair, respectively.
