The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the Harper v. Faulkender case, which could have re-examined whether cryptocurrency exchanges must provide customer data to the government, Decrypt reported. The decision frustrated cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase, who had hoped that the court would create privacy exceptions for blockchain data similar to mobile phone records. The case involves the "third-party principle" that has long allowed the government to obtain customer records from service providers such as banks. The case involved James Harper, a Coinbase customer whose personal transaction data was obtained by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during a large investigation. During this investigation, the IRS requested information on more than 14,000 cryptocurrency accounts.