Coinbase's SEC documents reveal that the New York State Attorney General had requested ETH to be recognized as a security

According to CoinDesk, Coinbase's latest disclosure of internal SEC documents shows that the New York State Attorney General's Office requested the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to officially recognize Ethereum as a security during its lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin in 2023. Shamiso Maswoswe, the Director of the New York State Investor Protection Agency, explicitly requested the SEC to submit an amicus curiae brief in support of this position in an email, stating that "although this is not a decisive factor in the case judgment, the court's determination that ETH is a security will be more conducive to investor protection. The SEC ultimately did not respond to the New York prosecutor's request and maintained a vague stance on the ETH attribute. The document shows that the SEC had an early inclination to recognize ETH as a commodity, but its attitude wavered after Ethereum switched to the PoS mechanism. It is reported that the financial regulatory system in New York State is unique, with its Financial Services Department overseeing both securities and commodity trading. With the Trump administration appointing cryptocurrency friendly Paul Atkins to head the SEC, the tension in US cryptocurrency regulation has eased. The SEC has recently issued statements clarifying that some digital assets do not fall under the category of securities. But this exposed document once again highlights the fundamental differences between federal and state regulatory agencies in the United States regarding the characterization of cryptocurrencies.