PANews reported on April 21 that Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, posted on the X platform: “We have obtained more details about the Gensler-era investigation of Ethereum 2.0 (ETH2.0) from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. In their Vaugh index for undisclosed materials, we found the following documents and intend to pursue them further.

• A May 2022 PDF document titled “Analysis of Ethereum 2.0 under the Howey Test,” prepared by SEC staff.
• A February 2023 email titled “Response Regarding Whether Ethereum is a Security.” A PDF document from April 2023 titled “2 - Ethereum 2.0,” which may be a memo the commissioners received before voting to authorize an investigation into Ethereum 2.0.
• An August 2023 email titled “On timing for Ethereum discussion.”
• Two emails dated February 2024, titled “FW Spot Ethereum - Is It a Security or Not?” and “Ethereum - Is It a Security or Not?”
• Emails and attachments from February and April 2024 containing ‘possible approaches to specific legal issues related to Ethereum’.
• Case closing statement for the Ethereum 2.0 investigation.

Why did this asset pass the so-called ‘ecosystem’ test, while others did not? We need to examine past mistakes holistically to avoid repeating them in the future.”