© Reuters
Investing.com – It’s been less than a week since the blockchain transitioned from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake with the merger. Nevertheless, the few days since the technical transformation were enough to convince US Securities Commission Chairman Gary Gensler that Ethereum was now clearly a security.
In 2018, then-SEC Chairman William Hinman said Ethereum was not a security. attempted to use this statement in the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against the company, but so far the authority has refused to provide the documents that led to this statement in 2018.
Until the merger, the new SEC chairman was tight-lipped about Ethereum’s classification, but in the meantime, it looks like things have started to move. Yesterday, the regulator filed a complaint against YouTuber Ian Balina. This allegedly put unregistered securities into circulation in 2018 by selling SPRK tokens.
The SEC considers this to be proven, as the transactions took place through the Ethereum network, whose blockchain nodes are “more densely clustered in the United States than in any other country.” According to Ethernodes, 42.56% of Ethereum nodes are actually in the United States.
This should be an additional argument for the authority to feel responsible for Ethereum in the future.
By Marco Oehrl