Coinbase’s fray with the FDIC continues

“Law-abiding American businesses should be able to access banking services without government interference,” Coinbase’s Paul Grewal said on X

article-image

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal | Permissionless III by Mike Lawrence for Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


Remember when the SEC sued Coinbase last year for alleged securities violations? And then earlier this year, the crypto exchange launched suits against the SEC and FDIC after its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests were denied? 

Related, Coinbase on Friday shared letters from the FDIC. The documents, according to chief legal officer Paul Grewal, show that “Operation Chokepoint 2.0 wasn’t just some crypto conspiracy theory.” 

A March 2022 letter about a proposed “fintech product” (written by FDIC assistant regional director Eric Guyot) notes, for example, the FDIC “has not yet determined what, if any, regulatory filings will be necessary for a bank to engage in this type of activity.” Guyot then adds: “As a result, we respectfully ask that you pause all crypto asset-related activity.”

The black highlighter tool (i.e., government redactions) was used plenty on that letter and others. The FDIC is “still hiding behind way overbroad redactions,” Grewal explained.

History Associates, a consultancy firm Coinbase hired in 2023 to help retrieve records, said in a Friday court filing that it’s not satisfied with what the FDIC produced.

First, the letters appear to redact information about the type of digital asset products or services at issue, History Associates notes. And secondly, heavy redactions in four specific letters “makes it difficult for History Associates to evaluate whether the FDIC has disclosed all non-exempt portions of those letters.”

The FDIC claims, according to the court filing, that the redactions help protect the identity of the banks. An FDIC spokesperson declined to comment further.

Operation Chokepoint 2.0 claims resurfaced recently when a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen said on Joe Rogan’s podcast that roughly 30 tech and crypto founders have been debanked in recent years.

“Law-abiding American businesses should be able to access banking services without government interference,” Grewal added on X, noting the incoming administration can reverse course.

I’m sure there’ll be plenty more on this front.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Judge Analisa Torres said the parties have not demonstrated that vacating her prior ruling is in the best interest of the public

article-image

Prediction markets have found a mainstream fit

article-image

Money for enemies isn’t fun, but crypto can be

article-image

Onchain SOL perps wiped $31 million, outpacing CEX volumes two days in a row

article-image

Fed Chair Jerome Powell told Senators Wednesday that the timeline on lowering interest rates is up in the air

article-image

Credit infrastructure DeFi protocol Grove makes allocation into a CLO segment “ripe for movement into DeFi”