Less than a week has passed since the merger, which caused the Ethereum blockchain to switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Nevertheless, the little period of time following the technical change was sufficient to persuade Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities Commission, that Ethereum was now unmistakably a security.
Ethereum was not a security, according to William Hinman, the then-SEC Chairman, in 2018. The authority has so far refused to turn up the materials that led to this declaration in 2018, despite Ripple’s attempts to do so in the continuing SEC action against the firm.
The new SEC chairman was coy regarding Ethereum’s categorization before to the merger, but it appears that things have started to move. Regulator Ian Balina was the target of a complaint that was submitted yesterday. By selling SPRK tokens, this purportedly allowed unregistered securities to enter the market in 2018.
The transactions took place through the Ethereum network, whose blockchain nodes are “more densely distributed in the United States than in any other country,” according to the SEC, which views this as proof. 42.56% of Ethereum nodes are really located in the United States, according to Ethernodes.
This should serve as another another justification for the authorities to take future responsibility for Ethereum.
