Gary Gensler, the man responsible for crypto regulations in the United States, has been put through the mill by Congress. Accused of recurring abuse of power in his approach to regulation, he now finds himself confronted with allegations of lies concerning Ethereum. Patrick McHenry, a no-nonsense representative, did not mince his words regarding him.
Gensler in turmoil: compromising revelations
Gensler's position on the Bitcoin is as clear as noodle soup: he does not want to consider it either as “security” or as a “commodity”. And what about Ethereum? Same artistic blur. However, heavyweights in the cryptosphere, such as the co-founder of Ethereum, Joseph Lubin, came out of their reserves to make blocking any attempt to classify ETH as a security or “security”.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has waded into the heated arena pitting financial regulators against the cryptocurrency industry. He sharply accused the president of the SECGary Gensler, for “deceiving Congress” regarding the agency's stance on Ethereum crypto.
These revelations come after the internal uncovering of a consideration of Ethereum (ETH) as an unregistered security for more than a year by the SEC, according to documents disclosed in a lawsuit filed against the regulator by Ethereum software company Consensys.
Despite ETH's importance in the crypto landscape as second largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization, after Bitcoin, Mr. Gensler stubbornly refused to comment on the SEC's position on Ethereum. At a congressional hearing last year, he carefully avoided McHenry's direct questions about the nature of ether as a security.
A game of hide and seek with Ethereum
In the standoff between regulators and players in the cryptosphere, a new episode has surfaced. According to the recent lawsuit filed by Consensys against the SEC, the agency gave the green light to subpoenas regarding several crypto-assetsincluding ETH, just five days before lightning struck.
But beware, an SEC order is not a verdict in itselfbut rather the kickoff of an investigation, as a source close to the matter points out.
McHenry, for his part, takes issue with this apparent duality between the SEC's public words and its behind-the-scenes maneuvers on ETH. An illustration, according to him, of the blatant arbitrariness in the regulation of digital assets by the agency. Moreover, it has no interest in classifying this crypto as a security.
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