- Ethereum co-founder speaks out on Ethereum's commodity status as SEC and CFTC make jurisdictional claims over the asset.
- It would appear that the Lummis-Gillibrand Act would define which assets are commodities and which are securities..
Ethereum's commodity status (ETH) has been the subject of discussion as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) seek to claim jurisdictional control over the asset.
According to the CEO of Consensys and co-founder of Ethereum Joseph Lubin, “the SEC has spoken” when asked about the security status of the asset. With this, Lubin was referring to former SEC Director Bill Hinman's 2018 speech that removed Ethereum from the securities category.
In the latter document, the former SECOND The director has been sternly warned about the impact of this speech, as it could create confusion in the market when regulators decide to make a decision on the asset. However, he still pronounced this pronunciation. Lubin also mentioned that CFTC has repeatedly “spoken very clearly” about Ethereum being a commodity.
According to Chairman Rostin Benham, many cryptos are indeed securities, but the first three (Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether) are commodities. In its statement, Ethereum has been listed on some CFTC exchanges for some time and is therefore considered a commodity.
We would not have allowed the Ether futures product to be listed on a CFTC exchange if we did not have the belief that it was a commodity asset.
The SEC has different opinions on the security state of Ethereum
Contrary to this, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also claims that anything other than Bitcoin falls under the security laws.
Many reports suggest that Gensler was double-minded about Ethereum's security status, as some videos suggest he once thought the asset was a security since his days as a professor at MIT. Other videos also suggest he believed Ether had gone from security to commodity in 2018.
With stablecoins like Tether, the CFTC Chairman also makes a similar claim.
In reviewing the circumstances surrounding the Tether case, it was clear to our enforcement team and the commission that the Tether stablecoin was a commodity and that we needed to move forward and quickly to control this market.
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis recently condemned the SEC's action against Coinbase, saying the Commission failed to provide adequate legal guidance. She said the Lummis-Gillibrand Act should be passed by Congress to provide a “robust legal framework” for businesses to work with. Regulatory uncertainties are forcing some companies to leave the United States for a friendlier environment.
It is worth noting that the debate between the CFTC and the SEC may end once the bill is successfully implemented, as it would define which digital assets are commodities and which are securities. It is reported that the bill would ban algorithmic stablecoins and introduce a requirement for stablecoin issuers.
Lubin ended the interview by saying that Ethereum's commodity status is a foregone conclusion.
It really is a foregone conclusion at this point. There are maybe one or two regulators in the US who can't bring themselves to say that Ether is not a security, but I don't know why that is.