Consensys relayed via X that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stopped its investigations of Ether being a security and, thus, Ethereum offering securities illegally. The news comes as the SEC is in the final stages of approving spot Ether ETFs.
“Today we’re happy to announce a major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants: the Enforcement Division of the SEC has notified us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0.,” Consensys conveyed in a post.
It continued, “This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions.” The SEC began looking into Ethereum for selling illegal securities since the network transitioned to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. It also previously maintained that every cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin is a security.
However, it has changed its tune in recent times, especially about ETH, as exhibited in this scenario. Consensys reached out to the agency through a letter on June 7, asking if it will continue its efforts to bring charges to Ethereum despite being months, if not weeks, away from approving Ether ETFs. It replied to Consensys, stating it is now “premised on ETH being a commodity.”
If the SEC continued its action to take down Ethereum and the ecosystem of services built around it in the US, Consensys would be one of the many affected. In fact, it got hit with a Wells Notice by the SEC, and so did many other service providers for allegedly acting as broker-dealers that illegally dealt with ETH.
Consensys operates MetaMask, offering ETH swaps and staking services. It sued the regulator for going after Ethereum, citing the SEC’s unfair treatment of cryptocurrencies and intent to control the industry and halt innovation.
In its court filing on April 25, Consensys mentioned, “The SEC’s unlawful seizure of authority over ETH would spell disaster for the Ethereum network, and for Consensys.” This lawsuit is still in progress.
Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay
