Supreme Court Rejects Coinbase Privacy Bid, IRS Gains Data Access

- Supreme Court declines to hear Coinbase privacy challenge against IRS. - Lower court ruling affirmed, granting IRS access to user data. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a pivotal privacy challenge from the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase concerning an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demand for broad user data. The Court’s decision, issued without comment, solidifies earlier lower court rulings that grant the IRS access to data for thousands of Coinbase customers for its ongoing tax enforcement efforts. On June 30, 2025, The Block reported that the dispute began in 2016 when the IRS issued a "John Doe" summons to collect information on Coinbase users suspected of tax evasion. The summons specifically targeted users with cryptocurrency transactions exceeding $20,000 between 2013 and 2015. In 2020, Coinbase customer James Harper filed a lawsuit, arguing that the IRS's broad data request was an unconstitutional seizure of his financial information and violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Supported by cryptocurrency advocates and privacy defenders, Harper’s case urged the Supreme Court to reassess the "third-party doctrine," which limits privacy rights for data shared with external companies. Under the third-party doctrine, courts historically rule that individuals give up certain privacy claims over data they share with intermediaries like banks or Coinbase. The U.S. government argued that Coinbase's records are business documents, not personal data protected by the Fourth Amendment. While a district court narrowed the initial IRS request, it still required Coinbase to disclose data for approximately 13,000 customers. A U.S. appeals court later upheld this ruling, agreeing that Coinbase must comply with the IRS subpoena. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case leaves the lower court's decision in place, allowing government agencies like the IRS to access significant user data from cryptocurrency platforms without obtaining individual warrants. For the cryptocurrency industry, the ruling is a defining moment for data privacy, as it underscores the degree to which exchanges must cooperate with regulators. According to CoinMarketCap, as of June 30 at 12:00 UTC: - Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $30,121, with its 24-hour trading volume up 1.4%. - Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1,852, a 2.1% change in the same period. - Dogecoin (DOGE) is trading at $0.062, an increase of 0.9%.