On Wednesday (7 December 2022), U.S. Senator Cynthia\u00a0Lummis (R-WY) said during an interview that Ethereum ($ETH) might get called a security by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (\u201cSEC\u201d).<\/p>\n
According to a\u00a0press release\u00a0issued on 7 June 2022, \u201cU.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Cynthia\u00a0Lummis (R-WY), member of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced the\u00a0Responsible Financial Innovation Act, landmark bipartisan legislation that will create a complete regulatory framework for digital assets that encourages responsible financial innovation, flexibility, transparency and robust consumer protections while integrating digital assets into existing law.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=GhRSO8pZoYw%3Ffeature%3Doembed<\/p>\n
According to a report by CoinDesk, yesterday (7 December 2022), during an interview on CoinDesk TV, Lummis \u2014 who plans to reintroduce her bipartisan bill next year \u2014 said that \u201cit\u2019s starting to look more like bitcoin is the only thing that would qualify as a commodity,\u201d\u00a0and that Ethereum might be \u201ca security because of the way [it] moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake,\u201d with the \u201cinability to [unstake tokens] right now\u201d making it \u201csusceptible to being [considered] a security.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=54ZzraywtgY%3Ffeature%3Doembed<\/p>\n
On 6 December 2022, while being interviewed by entrepreneur\u00a0Patrick Bet-David\u00a0(\u201cPBD\u201d) for episode 212 of the PBD Podcast, Michael Saylor, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at business intelligence software company MicroStrategy Inc.\u00a0(Nasdaq: MSTR), was asked what he thinks about Ripple (or rather XRP).<\/p>\n
Saylor, who seems confused by the difference between Ripple, which is a FinTech firm specializing in cross-border payment solutions, and XRP, which is a digital asset that is the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), replied:<\/p>\n
\u201cRipple is an unregistered security\u2026 There\u2019s a company. The company owns a bunch of it. They sell it to the general public, but they never took the company public. There\u2019s no disclosures, right? So the SEC\u2019s position is \u2018you\u2019re selling an unregistered security\u2019. It\u2019s a crypto token, right?<\/em><\/p>\n Just like Ethereum is an unregistered security. It\u2019s controlled by a few people in the Ethereum Foundation and Consensys\u2026 Just like FTT. Just like Solana. They\u2019re all unregistered securities\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n PBD then asked Saylor if all altcoins are unregistered securities, why is the SEC going after $XRP and not $ETH.<\/p>\n Saylor answered:<\/p>\n \u201cI think the best thing for the world would be with if the SEC pretty much shut down all of it. It\u2019s all unethical, right? I mean the Bitcoin position would be Bitcoin is an ethical commodity. All of these other altcoins are unregistered securities. They\u2019re all just equity tokens issued by a company in order to get around going public and they\u2019re committing securities fraud, Ethereum included, of course. Especially Ethereum.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou know, Ethereum\u2019s got 20 billion dollars of $ETH token locked up in the staking contract right now and there\u2019s a couple of people that may or may not give it back to you ever. Now, isn\u2019t that the definition of an investment contract? If a bank took 20 billion dollars of your assets, froze the the window, and said, \u2018you can\u2019t have your money back ever, it may be in the year 2024, we\u2019re not sure, we\u2019re just going to keep it, we may actually give you interest on it, we may take it all, we may slash it.<\/em><\/p>\n