The SEC agreed to pay $150,000 and hand over its remaining records to end a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit tied to its Ethereum investigations. The case, pursued on behalf of Coinbase, exposed the deletion of text messages from former Chair Gary Gensler and other senior officials.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over its investigations into Ethereum, according to a joint status report filed July 22. History Associates Inc. and the SEC asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the case after reaching a settlement. Under the deal, the agency will produce the remaining responsive documents and cover the plaintiff’s legal fees with the flat payment.
A records fight that started with Coinbase
History Associates, which provides historical research and archival services to government agencies, filed the lawsuit in June 2024 on behalf of Coinbase. The firm had submitted three public records requests the year before, seeking documents on SEC investigations into Zachary Coburn and Enigma MPC and on how Ethereum shifted to a proof-of-stake system.
The lawsuit compelled the SEC to hand over thousands of documents. The court ordered the agency to prioritize all records and communications sent, received or evaluated by then Chair Gary Gensler concerning Ethereum’s migration from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake network.
Deleted texts and a wider transparency fight
The document fight stalled in September 2025 after the SEC’s Inspector General reported that the agency accidentally deleted Gensler’s text messages from October 2022 to September 2023. Later court updates showed the agency wiped 21 phones belonging to top officials, five of which belonged to the same staff members targeted in the Coinbase case. The SEC notified the National Archives about the deleted phones in July 2025.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tied the outcome to an FDIC case over buried evidence during the 2023 banking crisis. In a post on X, Armstrong wrote: “The Gensler SEC deleted texts at the height of the anti-crypto campaign”.
The settlement closes more than two years of litigation over the document requests. The case will be formally dismissed once the SEC finishes producing the remaining records.
Source: CoinDesk
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