FDIC agrees to pay legal fees and reset FOIA practices in crypto pause letters case

The fight over the FDICs crypto pause letters is ending with a check and a policy clean-up.

In a joint status report filed in federal court, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and History Associates Incorporated said they have reached terms that would wrap up the long-running Freedom of Information Act dispute. Under the agreement, the FDIC will pay $188,440 in attorney fees tied to the case. Once payment is made, the parties said they plan to file a stipulated dismissal.

The lawsuit traces back to a FOIA request History Associates submitted on Nov. 8, 2023, at the direction of Coinbase, seeking copies of pause letters referenced in an FDIC Office of Inspector General report. The OIG described those letters as supervisory communications asking FDIC-supervised institutions to pause or not expand planned or ongoing crypto-related activity.

The FDIC initially denied the request in January 2024 and later upheld that denial on appeal, arguing the letters would fall under FOIA Exemption 8, which covers bank examination and supervisory materials. The court later faulted the regulators approach, saying it could not treat the request as exempt by record type without doing a document-by-document analysis.

The settlement also addresses broader process issues that became a flashpoint in the case. According to the filing, the FDIC agreed to add language to its internal FOIA materials instructing staff to construe requests “liberally” and to apply exemptions and any “foreseeable harm” analysis on a fact-specific, case-by-case basis. The filing also includes a declaration that the agency does not maintain a blanket policy of categorically withholding all documents that implicate Exemption 8.

The dispute has been closely watched across crypto policy circles because the pause letters became a shorthand for informal pressure on banks at a time when many crypto firms said they were being cut off from financial services.

The FDIC has already been releasing related materials in stages, including a large batch of documents in February 2025 tied to supervision of crypto-related activity. Coinbase has also collected court filings and productions in its own FOIA reading room. The disclosures provide additional detail that may surface in discussions featured in a Coinbase review.

For the industry, the practical impact is less about one fee payment and more about precedent: the filing puts the FDIC on record that crypto-related supervisory documents cannot be swept into a one-size-fits-all denial, and that FOIA review has to start with what is actually on the page.