<\/p>\n
The US government has urged the Supreme Court not to take up a Coinbase user\u2019s challenge against the Internal Revenue Service\u2019s (IRS) effort to obtain his crypto transaction records.<\/p>\n
In a filing<\/a> dated May 30, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that Coinbase user James Harper has no Fourth Amendment right to shield his financial records held by the exchange.<\/p>\n The government claimed that Harper \u201cvoluntarily\u201d shared his data with Coinbase, and that the IRS followed proper legal procedures to obtain it through a judicially approved summons.<\/p>\n Harper\u2019s case centers on a 2016 IRS investigation into widespread tax underreporting on cryptocurrency gains. At the time, the IRS discovered a sharp gap between the millions of Coinbase users trading Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) and the relatively few taxpayers who reported crypto gains.<\/p>\n In response, the agency obtained a so-called \u201cJohn Doe\u201d summons compelling Coinbase to turn over records on high-volume customers.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Coinbase data breach 2025: What was stolen and what you need to know<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Harper, who traded Bitcoin on Coinbase during the relevant years, later sued, claiming that the IRS\u2019s actions amounted to an unconstitutional search of his personal records.<\/p>\n Lower courts disagreed, ruling that Coinbase\u2019s records are business documents \u2014 not Harper\u2019s private papers \u2014 and that the IRS acted lawfully.<\/p>\n In its brief, the government argued that Supreme Court precedent supports the IRS\u2019s position. Citing past cases such as United States v. Miller<\/em>, the government emphasized that individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy in financial records held by third parties Coinbase.<\/p>\n The filing also pointed to Coinbase\u2019s own privacy policy, which warned users that information could be shared with law enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the extent petitioner made those arguments below, the court of appeals correctly rejected them as both foreclosed by this Court\u2019s precedent and meritless,\u201d the government said.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will hear the case. A denial would leave in place the First Circuit\u2019s ruling in favor of the IRS.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Retired artist loses $2M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n On May 15, Coinbase\u00a0disclosed a data breach<\/a> in which attackers bribed customer support staff in India to access sensitive user information.<\/p>\n Stolen data included customer names, account balances, and transaction histories. Coinbase confirmed the breach impacted roughly 1% of its monthly transacting users. Among those\u00a0affected was venture capitalist Roelof Botha<\/a>, managing partner at Sequoia Capital.<\/p>\nCoinbase user sues IRS over crypto records search<\/h2>\n
Coinbase suffers major data breach<\/h2>\n