Consensys founder Joe Lubin said Wednesday during a speech at the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels that U.S. regulators have been “driving quietly,” adding that certain senators and banking lobbies have “opportunistically” stepped in to guide the SEC’s crypto policy.
“They worked with Chairman Gensler to say, ‘Hey, let’s take a 100-year-old law and extend its jurisdiction and control this new technology so that it can essentially be grafted onto our current infrastructure,’” Rubin said. “The big banks and big financial institutions can continue to operate and probably create a dumb version of decentralization.”
Rubin also said he and others have struggled because of unclear laws.
“For years, we have become accustomed to operating under a dark cloud of regulatory uncertainty,” Rubin said.
Lubin discussed current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, saying Gensler I said before Ether is not a security.
“He said during his tenure at MIT that 75% of these tokens were not securities. Ether is not a security,” Rubin said.
Rubin added that Gensler “asked Congress for the authority to regulate this new technology because he didn’t have the authority to do so himself.”
Rubin added that the upcoming U.S. elections have “really opened things up,” with lawmakers now looking for new ways to get votes and raise campaign funds.
“We’re making real progress, and we’re moving forward with much less fear, and I think there’s going to be a lot less friction in the United States going forward,” Rubin added.
Consensus I sued On April 25, Consensys filed a complaint with the SEC, claiming that Ether “has no securities properties whatsoever” and therefore falls outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. In the complaint, Consensys stated that it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC and that the agency intended to take enforcement action against them.
The SEC sued Consensys on June 28, alleging that the company’s internal wallet, MetaMask, violated several laws. Specifically, MetaMask’s “swap” feature, which allows users to exchange one token for another, made it an unregistered broker..
The SEC also argued that MetaMask’s staking service, which provides an easy way to interact with liquid staking protocols including Lido and Rocket Pool, should be classified as an unregistered securities program.
July 2, Texas Judge Approved Expedited proceedings for SEC proceedings against Consensys. The proceedings will run from July 29 to November 26. It suggested a decision on the case could be made by the end of the year or early 2025.
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