FX168 Financial News (Asia Pacific) News Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin delivered a speech at the FT Live Crypto and Digital Asset Summit in London. He said that the US Securities Regulatory Commission appears to have classified Ether as a security, stressing that regulators “deliberately” hinder the approval of Ether spot ETFs and do not want Ether to change the banking landscape.

Lubin explained Consensys' decision to sue regulators after receiving a Wells Notice (Wells Notice) issued by the US Securities Regulatory Commission.

He explained, “The US Securities Regulatory Commission appears to have reclassified Ether as a security, but has not told anyone that this is actually the case. They are undertaking a series of strategic enforcement actions rather than open discussion and clear rulemaking.”

(Source: CoinTeleGraph)

As CEO of MetaMask wallet developer ConsenSys, Lubin stated that the enforcement action was aimed at creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the cryptocurrency industry, “trying to paralyze” and force the company offshore.

Lubin said that considering that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has previously classified Ether, the company's countermeasures against the US Securities Regulatory Commission are aimed at providing US courts with more clear information.

He also stressed that the US Securities Regulatory Commission is about to issue a decision to approve an Ether spot ETF as a driving force for regulators to re-take enforcement actions against Ether.

“We believe that the purpose of the series of activities is for them to show that even if they reject an Ether spot ETF, their behavior is not capricious,” Lubin added.

He further mentioned that the US Securities Regulatory Commission also noticed how much capital flowed into the ecosystem after the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved.

“I think they're worried that so much attention and capital will go to our ecosystem because our ecosystem is making huge strides in scalability and usability.”

He also speculated that the prospect of banking customers using decentralized finance (DeFi) structures to move assets into digital form could scare many banks and other financial institutions.

Positive actions against the US Securities Regulatory Commission may also have a broad impact on the US cryptocurrency and technology landscape.

Lubin emphasized that the US Securities Regulatory Commission's claim that Coinbase and MetaMask wallets act as broker-dealers is a dangerous precedent.

He added that the idea of using a software to act as a broker-dealer is a “ridiculous idea.”

“We disagree on whether MetaMask should be registered as a broker-dealer, and it would be chilling if every MetaMask user had to register their wallet as a broker-dealer,” he added.

Lubin concluded that the entire US tech industry could be affected by the actions of the US Securities Regulatory Commission.