Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, said in a post on the X platform that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) have filed a defense 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 "cease and desist letters" warning banks to stop working with cryptocurrency companies.
Notably, both agencies acknowledged that the documents sought by Coinbase do exist, but claimed to have 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 that summary judgment proceedings (such cases do not involve evidence discovery) will follow, and the final ruling may not be made until 2025. This development shows the ongoing information transparency dispute between the cryptocurrency industry and regulators, and the legal efforts made by companies such as Coinbase to obtain key regulatory information.