The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is dropping its investigation into whether Ether is a security.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has discontinued its inquiry into the status of Ether as a security. Ethereum developer Consensys announced in a June 19 X post that the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its investigation into Ethereum 2.0.
The firm celebrated this as a “major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants.” and ,“This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions,”
Consensys stated that the SEC’s decision was reached after it sent a letter to the agency on June 7 inquiring about the termination of its Ether (ETH) investigation.
In May, the regulator authorized spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which the firm stated are “premised on ETH being a commodity.”
The SEC’s response letter to Consensys, shared by senior counsel Laura Brookover, indicates that the agency does not “intend to recommend an enforcement action.” The Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) did not promptly address a comment on request.
Fortune reported in March that the SEC issued subpoenas to numerous companies in connection with its efforts to classify ETH as a security.
Consensys filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April, shortly after receiving a Wells notice from the agency informing it that its MetaMask crypto wallet may have contravened securities laws. The lawsuit alleged that the SEC and its Chair, Gary Gensler, had believed that ETH was a security since at least early 2023.
On March 28, 2023, Consensys asserted that Gurbir Grewal, the Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement, had authorized a formal order of investigation into the status of Ether as a security. The lawsuit, however is still ongoing, according to their most recent post.