Ethereum Foundation Under Investigation by 'State Authority'

The Ethereum Foundation – the Swiss non-profit organization at the heart of the Ethereum ecosystem – is under investigation by an unnamed "state authority," according to the group's website's.

The scope of the investigation and its focus was unknown at press time. According to the GitHub commit dated Feb. 26, 2024, "we have received a voluntary enquiry from a state authority that included a requirement for confidentiality."

The Ethereum Foundation did not return a request for comment

The investigation comes during a time of change for Ethereum's technology. Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain by market cap after Bitcoin, launching in 2015 following an initial coin offering for the chain's native ETH token. Earlier this month, the chain underwent a major technical upgrade, dubbed Dencun, designed to bring down transaction costs for users of Ethereum-based layer-2 platforms.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., investors await an outcome on the prospects of an Ether ETF, which faces a final deadline in late May for some applications.

Previously, the Ethereum Foundation's website contained the following disclosure:

"The Ethereum Foundation (Stiftung Ethereum) has never been contacted by any agency anywhere in the world in a way which requires that contact not to be disclosed. Stiftung Ethereum will publicly disclose any sort of inquiry from government agencies that falls outside the scope of regular business operations"

That footer was removed in the Feb 26, GitHub commit along with the website's warrant canary, according to the changelog.

A warrant canary is usually some form of text or visual warning (like a colorful bird, in the case of the Ethereum Foundation), which some companies include on their websites to indicate they've never been served with a secret government subpoena or document request

An attorney familiar with the situation said a Swiss regulator may have served a document request to the Ethereum Foundation and may be working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)