The US Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees to settle a Coinbase lawsuit that sought internal agency records from the height of the Biden-era SEC crackdown on cryptocurrency.

The settlement agreement, filed on Wednesday, July 23, brings an end to a two-year legal battle in which Coinbase pursued internal documents from the regulator to uncover evidence of what it characterized as a "crypto by enforcement" approach. A 2025 internal report disclosed that the SEC had deleted nearly a year's worth of text messages from former SEC Chair Gary Gensler due to what were described as "avoidable" errors. The record-keeping failure drew particular scrutiny given that the SEC has historically enforced similar requirements against financial institutions, having levied billions in fines against banks and brokers for failing to preserve electronic communications.

"The agency tasked with policing corporate record-keeping somehow lost reams of its own text messages between Mr. Gensler and other officials during the most intense period of the anti-crypto campaign," Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Grewal noted that the SEC will pay a $150,000 "award" and has since corrected its record retention policies.

The outcome represents another legal victory for Coinbase under the Trump administration. The SEC, now led by Chair Paul Atkins, has adopted a more accommodative stance toward the digital asset industry and dropped several high-profile enforcement actions against crypto companies, including Coinbase, in 2025.

The court docket for the case is available via CourtListener.

Earlier FDIC Settlement

In February, Coinbase reached a separate settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Under that agreement, the FDIC committed to paying $188,440 in legal fees and revised aspects of its transparency practices following a federal court ruling that it had violated the Freedom of Information Act. The two settlements combined — totaling roughly $338,000 in legal fees paid by federal regulators — reflect a broader push by Coinbase's legal team to use FOIA litigation as a mechanism to surface internal communications across multiple agencies during a period when crypto firms faced coordinated regulatory pressure.

"The years of litigation were worth it. We successfully uncovered dozens of crypto 'pause letters'—indisputable proof of OCP2.0 and the coordinated effort to sideline the industry," Grewal said in an X post in February.

Grewal to Transition from Chief Legal Officer

Grewal, who has served as Coinbase's chief legal officer since 2020, is set to transition to an advisory role at the exchange beginning July 31. Coinbase legal vice presidents Molly Abraham and Ryan VanGrack will assume the roles of general counsel and vice chair, respectively. Coinbase chief legal officer to transition to advisory role on July 31

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