Coinbase Reveals SEC Emails on XRP, ETH Classification

Internal communications obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that U.S. regulators privately debated the classification of Ethereum (ETH) as a security.

The documents were released by Coinbase on Wednesday, shedding new light on how crypto policy is shaped behind closed doors.

In a June 2023 email, Shamiso Maswoswe, head of the Investor Protection Bureau at the New York Attorney General’s Office, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file an amicus brief supporting the claim that ETH is a security.

Maswoswe made the request during NYAG’s ongoing legal battle with KuCoin, which the state sued for allegedly violating securities and commodities laws. The lawsuit named ETH as an unregistered security, a rare move at the time.

“We’d like the SEC to file an amicus brief in support of the argument that Ether is a security,” Maswoswe wrote.

She acknowledged that the court’s ruling wouldn’t determine the outcome of the KuCoin case but added that a formal court finding would help investor protection efforts. “It would be beneficial,” she said. “Conversely, a ruling that ETH isn’t a security would be unhelpful.”

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XRP Also Under Internal SEC Discussion

In addition to ETH, the documents revealed that the SEC internally discussed whether XRP might meet the legal definition of a security. This comes amid Ripple’s long-running legal battle with the agency, which has become one of the crypto industry’s most closely watched cases.

Coinbase’s document release includes over 10,000 files from agencies including the SEC. The exchange says it sought the records to promote transparency in crypto regulation and to clarify regulatory overreach concerns that have dogged the industry for years.