Supreme Court Rejects Crypto Privacy Case Against IRS

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Supreme Court Rejects Crypto Privacy Case Against IRS

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: July 01, 2025

Key Takeaways

The US Supreme Court declined to hear a Coinbase user’s case challenging IRS access to his crypto data;
Courts upheld the IRS’s right to collect user info from Coinbase without individual warrants;
Coinbase warned that this decision could affect privacy beyond crypto, including banks and emails.

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Supreme Court Rejects Crypto Privacy Case Against IRS

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James Harper, a Coinbase $2.81B user who argued that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) violated his privacy rights, will not have his case heard by the US Supreme Court.

Harper filed a lawsuit in 2020 after learning that the tax agency had collected information from Coinbase about users, including himself, through a "John Doe" summons.

Harper said this was a breach of his Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures. He claimed the IRS took his private financial records without proper notice or a warrant.

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His case was dismissed by the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire in March 2021. When he appealed, the First Circuit also ruled against him. With the Supreme Court choosing not to review the case, those rulings will stay in place.

Coinbase supported Harper’s attempt by filing a legal brief in his favor. The company stated that the current rules would allow the government to examine people’s past and future crypto activity without limitations.

They warned that this kind of access could apply to more than just crypto, as it might also include bank accounts, phone records, internet services, and emails.

Meanwhile, Michael Zidell recently filed a lawsuit against Citibank for failing to notice signs of a scam that resulted in a $20 million loss. How did the case unfold? Read the full story.