According to court docket papers filed on Tuesday, Coinbase has pushed again arduous towards the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s newest bid to toss out its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The change needs extra particulars about so-called “pause letters” that the FDIC allegedly despatched to banks, telling them to step away from crypto providers. Now, Coinbase is asking a decide to drive the FDIC to elucidate below oath the way it dealt with these information and at hand over all FOIA denial letters issued between 2020 and 2024.
Reports Shed Light On Pause Letters
Based on stories, the FDIC first utilized a broad exemption to cover the letters as “confidential financial institution examination information.” It paid no thoughts to sorting information from evaluation.
Coinbase notes that it took 4 court docket orders and 6 separate doc productions for the regulator to cough up the important thing recordsdata. That drawn-out course of, the change argues, reveals that the company nonetheless “stonewalls our efforts to shed mild” on previous strikes that focused crypto.
Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, wrote on X that the FDIC workers “proceed to stonewall our efforts” and that these techniques “can’t and received’t stand.”
We additionally filed a movement to take extra discovery from the FDIC to resolve their FOIA practices, which as we’ve seen in our case are removed from what the regulation requires. The company ought to testify through a 30(b)(6) deposition and produce the letters it sends to FOIA…
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) July 31, 2025
FDIC Procedures Under Review
Reports have disclosed that inside FDIC coverage tells examiners to withhold any doc pertaining to Exemption 8 in full, with “no responsibility to segregate factual from analytical or deliberative materials.”
In a January listening to, regulators admitted that they had no formal litigation-hold course of for FOIA requests. The preliminary search additionally centered solely on paperwork shared with the company’s Office of Inspector General.
That slender scope meant essential emails and memos—ones that point out “pause letters” instantly—have been missed at first.
Banking Access Takes Hit
According to an AIMA survey, 75% of crypto funds battle to get primary banking providers. That squeeze on banking companions has snarled transactions and settlement choices for companies like Coinbase.
Banks at the moment are cautious of any trace of regulatory threat. If the court docket orders extra sworn testimony, it may shine a light-weight on who actually signed off on the “pause letters,” and why examiners thought they needed to conceal a lot.
In its movement for additional discovery, Coinbase additionally needs each FOIA denial letter the FDIC despatched over a four-year stretch. It’s asking for sworn statements from FDIC officers about how they determined which information to maintain secret.
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