In a court docket submitting on Thursday, Coinbase opposed a 16-day extension request by the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) to delay its response in a public information lawsuit over paperwork tied to the alleged debanking of crypto corporations.
The case facilities on inside communications that Coinbase believes present the company engaged in a covert marketing campaign, dubbed “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” to isolate crypto from the U.S. monetary system.
Coinbase Chief Authorized Officer Paul Grewal pushed again on treating the FDIC’s request as commonplace process, calling the company’s request “absurd” in an X publish on Thursday.
The FDIC declined to remark. Decrypt has reviewed the submitting posted by Grewal under, however has but to independently confirm.
Events in litigation repeatedly ask for affordable extensions to deadlines–fine. However @FDICgov simply filed 13 pages in our FOIA swimsuit asking the Courtroom for an additional 16 days to determine whether or not to ask us for … much more delay. As specified by our response, that is absurd. pic.twitter.com/PQ9GIzAvQV
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) April 10, 2025
Coinbase argues the FDIC’s response deadline is April 16, not Might 2 because the company claims in its personal movement.
The crypto alternate stated the company is making an attempt to “evade its authorized obligations” and known as the extension “unwarranted.”
Coinbase additionally stated the FDIC has had months to arrange and had already stated it wanted solely 30 days post-stay to file a movement to dismiss.
That movement, Coinbase famous, requires only a four-page pre-motion discover, far shorter than the 13-page extension request itself.
“The company's interpretation of the default deadline is legally incorrect,” Coinbase wrote, including the company exhibits no “sound motive” for the requested extension.
The court docket battle is a part of the rising scrutiny the FDIC is going through over whether or not it helped coordinate an off-the-cuff marketing campaign to debank crypto corporations with out public rulemaking or congressional oversight.
Paperwork and extra paperwork
In February, the company launched practically 800 pages of inside paperwork, following strain from Coinbase and court docket orders, revealing how banks have been discouraged from providing providers to firms engaged in digital property.
Some have been instructed to halt exercise till regulators deemed it “protected and sound,” whereas others obtained warnings about “status danger” tied to crypto, even within the absence of monetary system issues.
The disclosures fueled long-standing allegations that federal regulators, beneath the Biden administration, tried to suppress the crypto trade by leaning on monetary establishments behind closed doorways.
Grewal characterised the transfer as a “coordinated effort to cease all kinds of crypto exercise.” On the similar time, CEO Brian Armstrong has known as the marketing campaign “one of the crucial unethical and un-American issues that occurred within the Biden administration.”
The Home Oversight Committee is now investigating whether or not such techniques amounted to improper debanking of lawful companies.
Lawmakers have reached out to Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and different trade leaders, searching for documentation and testimony.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
Editor's notice: This story was up to date after publication to notice that the FDIC declined remark.
