A crypto investor’s bid to block the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from accessing his Coinbase transaction history collapsed in federal court, not because his arguments failed, but ironically because his legal team missed a simple deadline. A California federal court on Wednesday dismissed Roger Metz’s petition to block an IRS summons ordering Coinbase to surrender his transaction data, marking at least the second such case in a year to collapse before reaching trial.
Metz had filed his petition in the Northern District of California in May 2025, challenging an IRS summons tied to an audit of his 2022 federal tax return. His legal team said the summons violated his privacy rights, fell short of basic administrative standards, and cast too wide a net. They also pointed out that Metz had already caught the error on his own and filed an amended return and paid the outstanding tax before the IRS even issued the summons in 2024.
A Procedural Misstep Ends the Case
Despite those arguments, US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín never got to weigh them. She dismissed the case on procedural grounds after finding that Metz failed to notify all required government parties within the mandatory 90-day window.
Federal rules require anyone suing the federal government to formally serve three parties: the local US Attorney, the US Attorney General in Washington, D.C., and the specific agency being challenged. Metz notified the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the IRS but missed the Attorney General deadline entirely. Judge Martínez-Olguín noted that Metz did not explain the lapse. “Dismissal of a case is proper when there is insufficient service of process,” she wrote in her ruling. The court dismissed the case without prejudice, leaving Metz the option to refile.
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The case highlights the IRS’s growing scrutiny of crypto activity. Exchanges like Coinbase are legally required to collect user data and report taxable income to it. The IRS can also compel exchanges to hand over records for broad groups of users.
The case ultimately resolved nothing on privacy or IRS overreach. The core questions Metz wanted answered remain open. But it serves as a warning to crypto investors everywhere: when you take on the federal government, the process matters just as much as the argument.
