SEC documents related to Coinbase show New York attorney general sought to have ETH declared a security
Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Updated May 7, 2025, 3:36 PM Published May 7, 2025, 3:30 PM
The New York state attorney general has filed a request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to formally declare that Ethereum (ETH) is a security and not a commodity in a 2023 lawsuit against KuCoin, according to a document provided by Coinbase in an agency communication package published Wednesday.
Shamiso Maswoswe, head of the Investor Protection Bureau of the New York Attorney General’s Office, hopes the federal regulator will express its position in the lawsuit by providing a brief overview of its views on ETH, according to a document prepared in response to a Freedom of Information Act request Coinbase filed with the SEC.
“We would like to ask the SEC to submit an amicus brief in support of the argument that Ether is a security,” she wrote in her request. “Regardless of this, it would not be decisive in our case (we have jurisdiction over both securities and commodities) — but I believe it would be helpful to investor protection if the court ruled that Ether is a security.”
That and other internal cryptocurrency-related communications sent and received by the SEC were made public Wednesday as Coinbase made more documents available from its legal battle with federal authorities. Previously released company documents included a series of letters from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that supported industry claims that U.S. banking regulators are actively pressuring banks to distance themselves from cryptocurrencies.
In New York’s 2023 request, he didn’t get what he wanted, as the SEC largely closed off access to its views on ETH. The US agency had previously suggested that ETH was likely a commodity, then appeared to change its stance after the protocol switched to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, but ultimately the SEC took a position implying that ETH is a commodity, just like Bitcoin (BTC).
Read More: New York Attorney General Alleges Ether Is a Security in KuCoin Lawsuit
This fight over jurisdiction is at the heart of the crypto industry’s long-running dispute with U.S. regulators, which
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