Consensys announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially ended its investigation into the blockchain ecosystem. Consensys is a blockchain technology company focused on building decentralized applications (dApps) and tools primarily for the Ethereum blockchain.
“Today we’re happy to announce a major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants: the Enforcement Division of the SEC has notified us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0,” the company posted.
“This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions.”
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Consensys filed a lawsuit against the SEC in April. The company complained that the SEC was attempting “to regulate ETH as a security, even though ETH bears none of the attributes of a security—and even though the SEC has previously told the world that ETH is not a security, and not within the SEC’s statutory jurisdiction.”
The lawsuit revealed that Consensys had received a Wells notice from the SEC, indicating the agency’s intent to sue. Consensys, which owns popular web3 infrastructure like the crypto wallet MetaMask and API provider Infura, was founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin.
The Reason Behind The Move
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs on May 23, 2024. This means that the SEC is considering that Ethereum is not a security.
On June 7, Consensys sent a letter asking the SEC to confirm that the ETH ETF approval in May has classified ETH as a commodity. Which then suggests that the agency would close its investigation on Ethereum 2.0.
