David Edwards
Republican Representative William Timmons has formally requested that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins release documents detailing the agency’s historical stance on Ethereum, particularly under the Biden administration and the leadership of former Chair Gary Gensler.
In a letter sent Tuesday, Timmons called for “specific documents” outlining the SEC’s evolving position on whether Ether (ETH) qualifies as a security, arguing that greater transparency is critical for both Congress and the public to evaluate the agency’s regulatory approach. “Under prior leadership the SEC refused to articulate a consistent, coherent view on how it believed the securities laws apply to digital assets. Its zigzagging approach to ETH is a case in point,” the letter stated.
Timmons highlighted a key shift in policy, noting that in 2018, then-SEC Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman declared that neither Bitcoin (BTC) nor Ether would be classified as securities. However, during an April 2023 congressional hearing, Gensler repeatedly declined to clarify ETH’s status, intensifying uncertainty in the crypto sector.
Timmons further revealed that, unbeknownst to Congress at the time of Gensler’s testimony, the SEC had already authorized a formal investigation into Ethereum’s legal classification just days prior. This investigation was ultimately closed approximately a year later, shortly after the SEC approved Ether-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—a move Timmons argued would be “appropriate only if ETH is not a security.”
“These repeated swerves caused destabilizing confusion for millions of American crypto-market participants,” he wrote, criticizing the SEC’s inconsistency.
The letter adds to mounting legal and political pressure on the SEC. In 2023, crypto exchange Coinbase filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking internal documents on the agency’s deliberations regarding Ether’s classification. After the SEC denied the request, Coinbase initiated legal action in June 2024, alleging FOIA violations.
A federal judge later compelled the SEC to release certain records, thousands of which Coinbase has since published online. Among them was a document revealing that federal prosecutors in New York had unsuccessfully sought the SEC’s official opinion on Ethereum.
