Our complaint is about the SEC’s gross regulatory overreach when it comes to interfering with the cryptocurrency and digital asset space. But ether’s status is a core component of the case. While long taking the position publicly that ether is a commodity, the SEC has secretly been targeting blockchain companies, including Consensys, and software developers in an investigation focused on Ethereum. It’s an abuse of power for a financial regulator to use its investigatory powers to mount an attack on technology, and we need the judicial branch to compel this rogue agency to follow the law.
The CFTC recognizes ether as a commodity, a stance the SEC validated as recently as October 2023. And given ether is a commodity, the applications that people around the globe rely upon to access and use the Ethereum blockchain – such as our MetaMask wallet – are not securities intermediaries (brokers).
Therefore, the SEC has no jurisdiction to regulate ether (a commodity), software interfaces built on Ethereum, or the Ethereum blockchain in general.
SEC regulation of Ethereum would jeopardize the U.S.’ ability to use blockchain technology as the basis for countless new innovations, technologies, and products that this next generation of the Internet will unleash.