Coinbase has settled its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission, closing a years-long fight that came to rest on a batch of text messages the agency admits it destroyed. 

Chief legal officer Paul Grewal disclosed the deal in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday.

Under the terms, Grewal wrote, the SEC will pay $150,000 and repair its record-retention policies. 

The story behind the settlement is what gives it weight. Coinbase filed FOIA requests in 2023 for records that might show how the SEC decided to treat crypto as securities, the same question at the center of the enforcement suit the agency brought against the company that June.