jakiro
Author: Mia
After the Ethereum ETF was approved, Ethereum once again won a phased victory in the public eye.
On June 19, Ethereum Infrastructure Development CompanyConsensysPosted on social media: “We are pleased to announce a major victory for Ethereum developers, technology providers and industry players: SEC law enforcement notified us that it is ending its Ethereum 2.0The investigation. This means the SEC will not file accusation that the sale of ETH is a securities transaction.”
The 14-month investigation finally came to an end and won a satisfactory progress.
The whole story of the SEC investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, the investigation began shortly after ETH was transferred to POS in September 2022.
When the ETH blockchain turned to “Proof of Stake”, Ethereum got rid of the energy-intensive model used by Bitcoin and turned to a model that relied on a network of trusted validators and provided a new excuse for the SEC to try to turn EtherA fang is defined as a security.
In response, a ConsenSys spokesman said: “Looking at Director Hinman’s speech in 2018, you will understand that when he said Ethereum was not a securities company, he did not use PoW or PoS as the basis, and the consensus mechanism was irrelevant.”
As early as 2018, William Hinman, then director of the SEC’s finance department, made an important speech, clearly stating that Ethereum is not considered a securities.Current SEC ChairmanGary GenslerBefore serving as SEC chairman, he also testified in Congress that ETH was not a securities company.
The sudden investigation undoubtedly caused public controversy and pushed the SEC to the forefront.
Major crypto leaders have begun to publicly criticize the SEC.
CoinbaseChief Legal Officer paulgrewal.eth once posted on social media that millions of Americans hold ETH, and ETH has been crucial to the cryptocurrency space since its launch in 2015, which is a commodity, not a security., which is also the position the SEC has taken for years, and the SEC has no good reason to reject an ETH ETF application.
The premise for the approval of ETH ETF is the assumption of ETH as a commodity. With the approval of the ETH ETF in May this year, the commodity attributes of ETH are proven again, which also means that the institution will end its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, which is alsoThis makes this investigation even more “nonsense”.
The SEC seemed to realize this and eventually gave up the investigation.
SEC is going to be mild
Since Gary Gensler took office, the SEC seems to have been seen as the “public enemy of the crypto world.”
Whenever the SEC investigates or takes action on certain projects or well-known people, the market often fluctuates, and even leads to a round of market decline.
Since serving as SEC Chairman in April 2021, Gary Gensler’s term has exceeded most of his office.During his tenure, Gary Gensler led cases against several well-known crypto businesses, includingBinance, Coinbase,Krakenand FTX, etc.The issues involved in these cases include market manipulation, unregistered securities issuance, violation of anti-money laundering regulations, etc.These actions have made crypto companies feel unprecedented regulatory pressure, and have also triggered discussions in the industry about the regulatory scale and scope.
Over time, encryption users seem to have become immune, and SEC’s attitude towards encryption seems to be going moderate in the crypto industry’s soft and hard bubbles.
Faced with controversy and doubts, Gary Gensler and the SEC are also working to adjust their regulatory strategies and comments.They began to pay more attention to communication and cooperation with the crypto industry, trying to find a regulatory approach that can protect investors’ rights and promote market development.
While “rectifying” the crypto industry, SEC has been committed to the integration of crypto finance and traditional finance.
In January this year,BitcoinSpot ETFs are listed; in May, the SEC also approved the 19 b-4 document of Ethereum spot ETF, two things that promote the integration of the crypto industry and mainstream finance.
Regarding the recent moderate SEC measures in the field of encryption, Hong Kong blockchain lawyer Wu Wenqian believes that “the SEC regulatory attitude seems to have signs of a change in the direction.”
Lawyer Wu said, “Last month the SEC officially passed the 19 b-4 document of the Ethereum Spot ETF. Although there is still some controversy over whether ETH is a securities legally, this move undoubtedly brings a touch of warmth to the cryptocurrency industry.Although this decision to revoke the investigation may not be direct directed to regulatory transparency and consistency in law, it is undoubtedly regarded as an important signal that the direction of regulation may change.
Considering that this year’s US election is approaching, there is indeed a possibility of major changes in policy direction.Against this backdrop, the SEC’s adjustment of regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies may indicate a more open and inclusive regulatory environment in the future.This is undoubtedly a positive signal to look forward to for the cryptocurrency industry.”
On June 20, Forbes Business reporter Eleanor Terrett revealed that Consensys founder Joseph Lubin said the company still plans to continue to advance the lawsuit, “The SEC’s decision to end the 14-month investigation into Ethereum is a welcome development.This is necessary, but not enough. There must be a better way of market regulation than raids. We hope that some U.S. regulators’ confrontational sentiment against cryptocurrencies will begin to weaken, and that national investor protection strategies will evolve from current guerrilla tactics. Until then, we will continue our lawsuit against the SEC in Texas as we are committed to winning more legal clarity for everyone.”
Faced with the primitive crypto society with wild growth, corresponding supervision and adjustment are undoubtedly the only way to go.
As Lubin said, only by clearly defining the scope and scale of supervision through legal means can we truly promote the healthy development of the crypto industry and protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors. Regulators and the crypto industry should find better market supervision methods, rather thanRaid inspection.
