Odaily News The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been accused of omitting multiple cryptocurrency-related "cease and desist letters" sent to banks in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit backed by Coinbase. In a report filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. on January 17, History Associates noted that the FDIC "may have missed other suspension letters" and plans to update the lawsuit based on this. There have been public reports that the FDIC "systematically obstructed FOIA requests," resulting in at least 150 related documents not being handed over. The 25 FDIC letters that have been made public recommend that financial institutions suspend cryptocurrency operations until the regulatory review is completed, which the cryptocurrency industry believes is an action to cut off banking services for related companies ("Operation Chokepoint 2.0").
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a statement on January 16 that the lawsuit requested all suspension letters confirmed by the Office of the Inspector General, but accused the FDIC of limiting its search to letters in the report and that there may be other omissions. Grewal added that when the FDIC was asked to correct and stop the word game, the other party said it would take at least a year. The FDIC responded in a status report on January 17 that it had provided all relevant documents and searched for letters shared with the Office of the Inspector General between March 2022 and May 2023, in compliance with the FOIA request. The agency said that History Associates had no reasonable basis to believe that letters beyond this scope and time period were part of the original FOIA request, adding that these letter requests were being reviewed quickly as separate FOIA requests. (Cointelegraph)