Breaking: SEC Announces Ether is Not a Security

The SEC has revealed that it will not be classifying Ether or bitcoin as securities. This is huge news for the cryptocurrency community. It’s the first time the major US regulatory organization has officially stated that Ether (ETH) isn’t a security.

The announcement was made at Yahoo Finance’s All Market Summit: Crypto in San Francisco earlier today. At that summit, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director of Corporate Finance William Hinman said that the commission would not be classifying bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) as securities.

This statement is in line with what SEC Chair Jay Clayton recently said about bitcoin. In a televised interview, Clayton explained that payment-focused digital tokens like bitcoin are not securities, but other digital tokens – like the tokens sold in some ICOs – are securities.

Most of us expected bitcoin to not be labeled as a security. However, the fact that Ether is also not classified as a security is huge.

Ether was always in a grey area: Ether isn’t designed exclusively as a payment mechanism. Instead, Ether provides access to the Ethereum platform, including decentralized apps on the Ethereum network. It’s different from a payment-focused cryptocurrency.

Nevertheless, the SEC’s official stance appears to be that Ether and bitcoin are not securities.

The SEC Will Not Change Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Rules: They’ll Just Start Applying Them

In addition to the exciting news mentioned above, the SEC mentioned that they will not be changing cryptocurrency and digital asset rules. Instead, the SEC would begin applying those rules.

That means cryptocurrencies will continue to be treated as “property” – they’re not quite a security and they’re not quite a currency. Instead, they’re an asset that you own and hold, and the value of that asset can go up or down over time.

The SEC has apparently decided that cryptocurrencies like Ether and bitcoin “behave and are treated like commodities, similar to gold and oil.”

The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), meanwhile, has long urged the SEC to clarify its position on Ether. The CFTC – and other regulatory authorities within and outside the United States – will undoubtedly welcome today’s news with open arms.

This is Huge News for the Crypto Community

In any case, this is all good news for the cryptocurrency industry. If the SEC had announced that Ether and bitcoin were securities, then the markets would have been flooded with users trying to sell. It might have marked the end of bitcoin as we know it.

Fortunately, that’s not the case. Now, we have official confirmation from the SEC that bitcoin and Ether are not securities. We’ll see if the markets surge on this news – or if they continue sinking.

This comes as an amazing surprise considering the fact that last month, May 7th, there was a huge online craze and search for the rumored meeting the SEC was having put out by the Wall Street Journal in which created a ton of buzz and curiosity in the crypto community only to be let down and find out it was just a little informal gathering. Now, we have an official ruling regarding the Ethereum (ETH) ether token ruling and it is very positive and should have amazing impact within the markets and all of the ERC20 coins and projects built in top of the Ethereum blockchain.

What do you guys think about the headline? How will the rest of the crypto landscape be ruled and classified in the coming weeks and months? What does this mean for John McAfee’s request to debate SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on a live CNN debate about whether or not ICOs are securities?

Ethereum was trading at about $480 at the time of the news stories populating the internet and has already jumped back above $505 with a 7.5% gain in the last hour and 24 hours but will assume this could put ETH back into the $600+ range in the very near future given the gravity of this SEC decision about ETH’s security classification.

"Ether, as currently bought and sold, does not appear to be a security." – William Hinman at Yahoo Finance Crypto Summit just now. https://t.co/giCi090z5H #ethereum #blockchain — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) June 14, 2018

Stay tuned as we will be covering MUCH more regarding the SEC’s ruling on Ethereum as not being a security.