TL;DR
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The SEC simply filed a lawsuit in opposition to Consensys (creators of MetaMask), claiming that their staking providers are “provided and bought as funding contracts and [are], subsequently, securities.”
Full Story
For those who grew up with a youthful sibling, you’re in all probability aware of the next kind state of affairs:
Mother tells you to cease hitting one another → however you continue to have vengeance to put down → so begin destroying your siblings toys.
(Positive, you simply ripped the top off Eric’s beloved childhood teddy bear…however you’re nonetheless abiding by mother’s ‘no hitting one another’ decree).
Nicely, seems outdated habits die onerous.
The SEC could have stopped going on the throat of Ethereum, however now it’s attacking the businesses that assist it.
Particularly: Consensys (creators of the world’s hottest Ethereum pockets, MetaMask).
This time round they’re claiming that MetaMask’s staking providers are “provided and bought as funding contracts and [are], subsequently, securities.”
Now, a lot to the frustration of our household, we’re not attorneys…
However this looks like one of many longer pictures the SEC has taken in latest reminiscence.
They’ve simply categorized Ethereum (and by proxy/precedent, Ethereum-like merchandise) as commodities (‘issues’ like oil & gold) — i.e. not securities (enterprises).
Staking pays customers curiosity on their ETH (a commodity), the identical method banks pay clients curiosity on their money holdings (additionally a commodity)…
So the SEC is about to go and battle a case the place its largest hurdle is self-imposed (its latest categorization of ETH being a commodity).
We don’t get it. But it surely’s good to know they’re probably combating a shedding battle.