Coinbase Records Subject to IRS Search, Government Tells SCOTUS

The US Supreme Court shouldn’t take up a Coinbase Inc. client’s request to shield his cryptocurrency transaction records from an IRS summons, the federal government argued Friday.

James Harper, who used Coinbase’s platform to buy and sell cryptocurrency, is asking the high court to overturn a US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejection of his petition to quash an IRS summons seeking his account activity, balances, and the names of counter-parties to his transactions.

Harper argued the IRS violated his reasonable expectation of privacy in using Coinbase’s exchange, which was protected under the Fourth Amendment.

In a brief ...