The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees to settle a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding missing text messages from former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and other agency officials. The conversations were lost between October 2022 and September 2023, when the SEC was leading a vigorous enforcement campaign against the bitcoin industry. Following the exchange's prior FOIA success against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a research firm filed the lawsuit on Coinbase's behalf in 2024. It has since developed into another noteworthy win for transparency.

SEC Agrees to Pay $150,000 Over Missing Records

The SEC's inability to preserve or produce text messages that former Chair Gary Gensler and other senior officials exchanged between October 2022 and September 2023 was the main subject of the case. Because some of the agency's most well-known enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies took place during this time, it is especially noteworthy.

The lawsuit concerned whether the agency had appropriately retained official communications that should have been accessible under the Freedom of Information Act, rather than contesting a particular SEC ruling.

In order to improve the safeguarding of official communications, the SEC agreed to upgrade its internal recordkeeping procedures and pay $150,000 in attorney's fees as part of the settlement. The settlement requires the government to enhance its records management procedures moving forward, but it also ends the litigation.

Recovering papers was never the only aspect of the case for Coinbase. It was about making sure that regulators continue to be held responsible for maintaining public records, particularly when their choices might have a long-term effect on an entire industry.

The government tried to secretly kill crypto in America.

We sued to expose this, and we won.

We'll always fight for financial freedom. pic.twitter.com/LRk3YRjVRC

— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) July 22, 2026

Coinbase Says Transparency Must Apply to Regulators

Instead of seeing the settlement as merely a legal win, Coinbase sees it as a significant step toward increased government accountability.

During the SEC's crypto enforcement campaign, the business claims that one year's worth of written communication was lost, raising serious issues about transparency. Simultaneously, it called attention to what it perceives as a similar process at the FDIC, where internal records about prohibitions on cryptocurrency banking were only made public following legal action.

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer, cited both actions as proof that records that the public is legally entitled to access should not be erased or withheld by government entities. He claims that Coinbase's efforts contributed to some of the biggest FOIA attorney-fee awards ever paid by the SEC and the FDIC and revealed material that might not have been made public otherwise.

According to the company, these issues involve more than just cryptocurrency laws. Rather, they uphold a more general premise that federal agencies, regardless of the industry in question, must maintain official records and adhere to public information rules.

The SEC deleted a full year of Gary Gensler's communications at the peak of his campaign against crypto.

The FDIC tried to secretly cut off an entire lawful industry from the banking system and buried the evidence.

The US government doesn't get to operate like this. Unless the… pic.twitter.com/jpOTjUVcAa

— Paul Grewal (@iampaulgrewal) July 22, 2026

Second Major FOIA Victory After the FDIC Case

The SEC settlement comes after Coinbase successfully sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in another major court case.

The FDIC's alleged "pause letters" prompted the company to pursue a FOIA lawsuit, which resulted in a $188,440 attorney-fee settlement. While a large portion of the agency's internal correspondence about the policy was kept secret from the public, those letters directed banks to stop or postpone specific cryptocurrency-related operations.

According to Coinbase, regulators shouldn't be allowed to influence legitimate companies behind closed doors without keeping or revealing the documents that support their choices.

Coinbase has now developed a consistent legal approach focused on government accountability after winning cases against the FDIC and the SEC. The company has increasingly utilised FOIA cases to force federal agencies to maintain records and adhere to disclosure obligations, rather than concentrating solely on contesting the crypto legislation itself.

By combining financial compensation with improvements to the agency's recordkeeping procedures, the SEC settlement now opens a new chapter in that endeavour.

Armstrong Says the Outcome Benefits Every Company

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the settlement's importance goes well beyond the cryptocurrency sector.

He believes that every American company might eventually be impacted if authorities can covertly put pressure on banks, conceal crucial documents, or fail to maintain official communication while focusing on a specific legal sector. For this reason, he believes that transparency is a problem that extends well beyond digital assets.

Armstrong cited two instances of information that were only made public due to Coinbase's legal action: the FDIC's previously unreported internal records and the SEC's missing text messages. He argued that those instances show why government organisations must maintain transparency and accountability while using their regulatory power.

Armstrong stated that the result is a victory for all Americans and companies that demand transparency from federal regulators, rather than just Coinbase.

If regulators can secretly debank an entire lawful industry, no business is safe.

That’s exactly what nearly happened to crypto, and we exposed the details.

The Gensler SEC deleted texts at the height of the anti-crypto campaign, FDIC buried evidence - it was all uncovered… https://t.co/dww2p34ALt

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 22, 2026

Together, the $188,440 FDIC FOIA reimbursement, the $150,000 SEC settlement, and the agency's pledge to enhance recordkeeping practices represent two of Coinbase's biggest transparency successes to date. According to the company, the cases set a significant precedent requiring government agencies to maintain official records and hold themselves accountable when their choices impact entire industries.

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