Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said on social media that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) have filed pleas in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. Grewal pointed out that the SEC improperly withheld documents from closed investigations, including Ethereum 2.0, while the FDIC withheld "suspension letters" warning banks to stop working with cryptocurrency companies.
Notably, both agencies acknowledge that the documents sought by
Coinbase do exist, but claim the right to withhold them based on government privilege. In its defense, the SEC further confirmed that its investigation into Ethereum 2.0 has ended. Grewal expects summary judgment proceedings to follow (such cases do not involve discovery of evidence), with a final ruling likely not to be made until 2025. This development illustrates the ongoing information transparency dispute between the cryptocurrency industry and regulators, as well as the legal efforts of companies such as Coinbase to obtain critical regulatory information.