See also: DeFi doesn’t have to worry about the SEC’s expanded broker rules. | opinion
“The stakes are high not only for Prometheum and the rest of the industry, but also for government agencies that have insisted for years that there is a proper way for crypto companies to ‘come in and register’ to do business in the United States. Prometheum is in and registered, but it’s unclear what happens next. And while testing this uncertain situation, it may also help determine whether the SEC will consider ETH a security.”
Prometheum can provide both custody and trading for those digital assets, as it is generally licensed to do both. This means, in the words of Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts, “Ethereum can legally be used as a security” and “regulators will have no choice but to recognize that designation.” In this scenario, Prometheum will be the only platform for legitimate, i.e. secure, Ethereum transactions. It would be a very nice natural monopoly if you could get it.
The question then is whether the SEC, seeing these anomalies, will finally step in to designate ether as a security. Mike Selig, a fintech lawyer at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, says that’s unlikely given the SEC’s preference for not being very explicit about cryptocurrencies over the past few years. “The SEC will likely remain neutral on Ethereum,” he said. They didn’t do the ether any favors. “I don’t expect that to happen now.” Under the terms of the SEC’s special purpose broker-dealer, Prometheum has broad authority to designate assets as securities for listing on its platform (e.g., by showing that the assets meet the overarching Howey test).