Coinbase has escalated its authorized battle with the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), submitting a federal court docket movement on September 11 demanding expedited discovery, sanctions, and quick manufacturing of all communications deleted by the company.
The texts in query belonged to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and span from October 2022 to September 2023—a interval marked by the collapse of FTX and quite a few enforcement actions towards main gamers, together with Coinbase.
SEC textual content deletions revealed
An SEC Workplace of Inspector Common report launched on September 3 confirmed that Gensler’s textual content messages have been deleted through the company’s crypto crackdown.
This deletion got here after Coinbase submitted FOIA requests in search of all communications associated to regulatory selections on bitcoin and different digital property.
Regardless of court docket orders requiring the SEC to supply all related paperwork and communications, the company’s manufacturing didn’t embody any textual content messages, nor did it make clear that textual content messages have been searched.
Coinbase’s chief authorized officer Paul Grewal acknowledged:
“The Gensler SEC destroyed paperwork they have been required to protect and produce. We now have proof from the SEC’s personal Inspector Common.”
delayed searches and technical failures
The SEC performed textual content message searches solely in April and June 2025, lengthy after it claimed compliance with judicial orders.
The company additionally reported technical limitations that affected the flexibility to get better texts from dozens of senior officers’ gadgets, leading to incomplete searches.
The Inspector Common’s report discovered that 38% of recovered Gensler texts concerned mission-related discussions, contradicting earlier claims that texts have been used solely for administrative issues.
Notably, one dialog in Might 2023 included coordination on enforcement actions towards digital asset buying and selling platforms.
Coinbase argues this units a double normal, because the SEC imposed over $1 billion in fines on monetary companies for comparable recordkeeping violations underneath Gensler’s management.
The submitting urges emergency court docket intervention to forestall additional destruction of company communications.