SEC pays $150,000 to Coinbase, revises recordkeeping policy

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to pay $150,000 and reform its recordkeeping practices to settle a lawsuit brought by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase over deleted text messages from former Chair Gary Gensler. The settlement, disclosed on July 22, 2026, concludes a years-long legal battle stemming from the agency's failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request.

Coinbase's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, announced the agreement, which requires the SEC to pay the $150,000 sum and permanently revise its policies for preserving official communications. The core of the dispute was the loss of nearly 11 months of text messages from Gensler's government-issued phone, covering the period from October 18, 2022, through September 6, 2023. This timeframe included the agency's pursuit of several major crypto enforcement actions.

An investigation by the SEC's Office of Inspector General, completed in September 2025, found the loss was caused by avoidable IT failures. According to the report, Gensler's phone stopped syncing with the agency's system in July 2023 but went unnoticed. A new policy that automatically wiped devices inactive for 45 days was...