SEC to Pay $150,000 to Settle Coinbase Texts Lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees to settle a two-year lawsuit filed by Coinbase seeking internal SEC text messages. The settlement, filed Wednesday, ends the court case over access to the records.

Coinbase pursued the records as part of litigation it said would show the agency’s approach to regulating the crypto industry. A 2025 internal SEC review found that nearly a year of texts from former Chair Gary Gensler were deleted because of avoidable errors in record retention. The agency has since updated its policies for retaining electronic communications, according to the filings.

Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, wrote that the payment was an “award” and criticized the agency’s loss of messages during a period of intensive enforcement. In a separate post earlier this year, Grewal wrote that litigation uncovered dozens of “pause letters” and referenced what the company calls OCP2.0, which it describes as coordinated regulatory pressure on crypto firms.

The settlement follows other recent legal developments involving Coinbase and regulators. In February, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation agreed to pay $188,440 in legal fees and to revise aspects of its transparency practices after a federal court found it had violated the Freedom of Information Act. The SEC, under new leadership in 2025, dropped several high-profile enforcement actions against crypto companies.

Coinbase said the documents obtained through the litigation informed its legal strategy. The company also announced leadership changes: Grewal will move to an advisory role on July 31, and legal vice presidents Molly Abraham and Ryan VanGrack will become general counsel and vice chair, respectively.

The settlement closes the two-year dispute over the missing texts and records the agency’s acknowledgement of record-keeping shortcomings identified in the 2025 review.