While Jack Dorsey is known to be a fervent supporter of Bitcoin (BTC), he has indicated that he considers Ethereum (ETH) to be a financial security. Let’s take a look at these statements, which are part of a particular context in the United States.
For Jack Dorsey, ETH is a financial security
On the sidelines of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) woes with many companies in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey shared his thoughts on Ethereum (ETH) on the social network he co-founded.
First, he retweeted a post showing a screenshot of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announcing in 2015 that Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM) and other altcoins were just distractions, and that the focus should instead be on Bitcoin (BTC) and sidechains:
– jack (@jack) June 6, 2023
Afterwards, Jack Dorsey was asked whether he thought ETH was a financial security in the sense of the Securities Act on which the SEC relies. He simply answered “yes”:
– jack (@jack) June 6, 2023
An unsurprising position
In fact, this response is in no way surprising. And for good reason, Jack Dorsey has never hidden his position on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, just like Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, who considers that all but BTC are financial securities.
The classification of a cryptocurrency as a financial security or not is the cornerstone of the SEC’s various complaints in recent months. To do so, the institution relies on a contested interpretation of the Howey test, allowing it to claim authority over pending cases.
While for a large part of the ecosystem, Ethereum does not meet the criteria of this famous text, future court rulings will be decisive in determining this.
