Coinbase sues SEC and FDIC over document requests related to past crypto industry actions
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Coinbase filed a pair of lawsuits Thursday seeking to compel financial regulators to hand over internal documents and communications related to past investigations and industry actions.
Why it matters: The U.S.'s largest crypto exchange is seeking information on what it suspects has been a concerted effort to kneecap the industry.
Driving the news: The lawsuits were filed against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
- The lawsuits, one which references "Operation Choke Point 2.0" — the name given to the industry's belief that the government has actively discouraged traditional finance from servicing crypto firms — ask a federal court to force the agencies to hand over documents that Coinbase had previously requested.
Context: The SEC and the FDIC denied providing all of the information Coinbase sought under separately filed FOIA requests in 2023, claiming one or more of the nine exemptions, according to Coinbase's complaints.
Zoom in: Coinbase's FOIA lawsuit against the SEC resurfaces one recently closed case and two old ones, its filing shows.
- That is SEC's recently closed investigation into Ethereum 2.0, plus two others that settled with the agency in 2018 and 2020.
- Coinbase also wants to see the "pause letters" the FDIC sent to bank institutions between March 2022 and May 2023 related to their crypto activities.
What they're saying: "Financial regulators have used multiple tools at their disposal to try to cripple the digital-asset industry," Paul Grewal, the firm's chief legal officer, said on social media Thursday.
Between the lines: Coinbase's claims — that the SEC is being "inconsistent" with its application of rules, and that the FDIC "pressured financial institutions" to cut off banking access to crypto — are not new.
- But it might help unearth new evidence that could bolster Coinbase's legal argument in its ongoing battle with the SEC over whether the exchange violated securities laws.
What we're watching: Now a court will decide whether to compel those agencies to give Coinbase what it wants.
