The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit over its investigations into Ethereum, according to a joint status report filed on July 22.
History Associates Inc. and the SEC asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the case after reaching a settlement. Under the agreement, the agency will file the remaining response documents and pay the flat fee to cover the plaintiff’s legal fees.
History Associates, which provides professional historical research, writing and archival services to government agencies, filed the lawsuit in June 2024. Working on behalf of Coinbase, the company had filed three public records requests in the previous year. Those filings sought documents about the SEC’s investigations into Zachary Coburn and Enigma MPC, along with records about how Ethereum moved to a proof-of-stake system.
The lawsuit forced the SEC to turn over thousands of documents, and the court explicitly ordered the agency to prioritize all records and communications sent, received, or evaluated by then-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in connection with Ethereum’s migration from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake network.
