Ripple CTO David Schwartz questions the SEC about Ethereum’s security status, highlighting the ongoing debate surrounding the SEC’s approach to cryptocurrencies.
The crypto community continues to discuss whether the SEC favors Ethereum over other digital assets.

Ripple vs SEC battle continues and in the latest development, Ripple CTO David Schwartz has tossed an interesting question to the U.S. SEC over the security status of Ethereum.

Schwartz’s question comes in response to the SEC’s recent tweet over the current developments. To give some context, fake news circulated earlier this week that the SEC has approved the spot Bitcoin ETF. This led to a quick pump and dump in the Bitcoin price, however, BTC has well settled above $28,500.

Responding to the development, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tweeted that one should not believe any other source but the SEC. The securities agency noted: “Careful what you read on the internet. The best source of information about the SEC is the SEC”.

In response, Schwartz inquired whether the regulatory agency believes that individuals trading ETH on digital platforms are, in fact, engaged in the sale of securities. He further expressed his desire to obtain an official response from the SEC, which he regarded as the most reliable authority on this matter.

Awesome. Does the SEC think people selling ETH on exchanges are selling securities? I’d like to hear from the best source. https://t.co/Mvgaa9DgUH

— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 17, 2023

Ripple CTO David Schwartz has been quite active on X keeping in touch with the XRP community. While the SEC battle continues, he has also been focusing on making the XRP Ledger, the lending platform for tokenized real-world assets.

Ripple Fans React

As anticipated, Schwartz’s comment garnered significant attention from the wider crypto community, prompting members to express their reactions in the comments.

Tony Edward, the host of the Thinking Crypto podcast, shared a gif that humorously depicted SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s hypothetical reaction to questions about Ethereum. The post playfully implied that Gensler might choose to avoid or evade questions related to Ethereum.

Gary Gensler when he has to answer any questions about Ethereum pic.twitter.com/8ccytSG0wB

— Tony Edward (Thinking Crypto Podcast) (@ThinkingCrypto1) October 17, 2023

Pro-XRP lawyer Fred Rispoli also reacted to Schwartz’s post. Rispoli wrote: “Pursuant to the SEC’s signed filings before a federal judge in our case in S.D. Cal., the SEC represented that it has not made a decision one way or another as to this exact question”.

Does the U.S. SEC Favour Ethereum?

In the Ripple vs. SEC battle, the crypto community has long argued that the SEC is using different yardsticks for XRP and ETH, to determine their security status. As a result, Ethereum has always been at the center of legal discussions.

Within the crypto community, there’s a prevailing sentiment that the SEC has been establishing a regulatory environment that appears to benefit Ethereum (ETH) at the expense of other cryptocurrencies.

An illustrative example of this perception is the speech delivered by William Hinman, the former Director of the SEC’s Corporation Finance division, on June 14, 2018. In that address, Hinman controversially classified both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as non-securities.

Despite SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s repeated assertions that only Bitcoin lies outside the agency’s regulatory scope, many individuals within the crypto space continue to believe that the SEC exhibits a favorable bias toward Ethereum over other digital assets.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ October 18, 2023 1:20 pm