SEC Sues ConsenSys

The SEC sued Ethereum software provider ConsenSys over its MetaMask service on Friday, alleging the wallet product was an unregistered broker that "engaged in the offer and sale of securities." From a report: MetaMask also offered an unregistered securities program through its staking service, the SEC alleged in a filing in the courthouse in the Eastern District of New York. The SEC alleged in its lawsuit that it offered staking services for Lido and Rocket Pool as investment contracts, meaning they are also unregistered securities. "Consensys has collected over $250 million in fees," the SEC alleged. You can read the full lawsuit here [PDF].

I never ...

[CaptainDork]

... met a mask I didn't like.

Can the SEC do anything?

[rsilvergun]

The Supreme Court keeps taking away basic powers from them. Stuff that's 50, 75, going on 100 years old.

Re:

[JeffSh]

the same opportunities for enforcement exist, they just require a jury trial instead of invoking regulatory power unilaterally. this will increase the expense of enforcement and may undermine their regulatory ability, but we should make laws that change things if we want it changed, which i dont know if we want it changed.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

Good.

Metamask is a communications technology.

SEC might as well indict the post office or Comcast for offering securities.

The truth is Gensler is widely known to be waging an illegal War on Crypto using SEC as his weapon under Chevron Deference

That ended today.

Congress can try outlawing crypto if it wants to.

Biden would sign it, Trump would not.

Silicon Valley is now backing the "don't ban new technology" guy.

Re:

[DewDude]

LOL.

The fact you chose a side just shows how stupid you are.

In the end, they won't allow a currency they don't control.

Re:

[hdyoung]

It’s quite a bit more than a communications tech, and companies that try to act like banks and investment houses while ignoring the relevant laws will find themselves in uncle sam’s crosshairs. Maybe in the legal sense, but quite possibly in the very-real-shooty sense. The USD system is backed up by a huge government, the most powerful country on the planet, a still-pretty-damn-good history of paying our debts, and many, MANY men with guns. We take it VERY seriously. The entire crypto-system use

Meanwhile back in stonks...

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

The SEC has refused to go after any of the big firms using dark pools to manipulate volume on popular stocks.

There is an open, criminal conspiracy that isn't even being hidden here. They move buys to the dark pools and route sells immediately to the exchanges like NYSE. Result is that sell pressure has a disproportionate immediate impact whereas it can take a few days for buying to catch up to the "open market."

The SEC doesn't have clear statutory authority on crypto, but they absolutely do on this, and the