According to Watcher. Guru’s disclosure, U.S. Representative William Timmons has demanded that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provide all the documents related to “the inconsistent handling of Ethereum (ETH) by Chairman Gary Gensler and during the Biden administration”.
Previously, the SEC’s stance on issues related to Ethereum has drawn much attention and controversy. For instance, shortly after Ethereum’s proof-of-stake upgrade in 2022, SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that the proof-of-stake chain pays users token rewards to lock their tokens as a security model, which is similar to an investment contract and might be classified as a security, but he did not explicitly mention Ethereum. However, in the SEC’s enforcement actions, Ethereum has never been directly designated as a security, a situation that has conflicted cryptocurrency lawyers.
Furthermore, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a small sister agency of the SEC, has allowed Ethereum futures trading for many years, suggesting that it regards Ethereum as a commodity. Moreover, in the lawsuit filed by the CFTC against Sam Bankman-Fried, the agency clearly stated that Ethereum is a commodity (like Bitcoin and Tether).
This time, Representative Timmons’ request for the SEC to provide relevant documents may help further clarify the SEC’s position and past handling methods on the Ethereum issue, and may also have a certain impact on the regulatory direction of the cryptocurrency industry.
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