The SEC says only BTC is a commodity:
https://www.axios.com/2022/06/28/bitcoin-is-the-only-coin-th...
The CFTC says only BTC is a commodity:
https://cryptoslate.com/cftc-chair-rostin-behnam-snubs-ether...
People keep saying that regulation is unclear, when let's be honest, it's perfectly clear. Just not what a lot of people wanted to hear.
Even here, it wasn't all of ETH that is under question. So, if you have bought some ETH from coinbase, it isn't under fire here. If you paid them to stake your ETH, it is. It is unclear, to me, what it would mean for any ETH you staked personally.
It wasn't a good look. For the congresscritter.
(I wonder how much money he's gotten from Sam, CZ, and Coinbase...)
[1] The fallacy in question is the congresscritter's claim[2] that a security can't also be a commodity. This is trivially disprovable by a simple example - an isolated company town using scrip, where the scrip also happens to be company stock.
[2] Whenever the chair would start responding to the fallacy, the congresscritter shouts over him, because if he doesn't, his argument-in-the-form-of-a-question falls to pieces.
Yes or no. No hemming or hawing. It's a simple question, yes, or no?
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Is it clear to you now that a simple yes or no question, couched in an incorrect assertion is not actually a simple yes-or-no question?
Hell, I'd be fine with a hedged answer of "it can be." That would make a ton of sense and would make sense. Akin to asking "is it speeding to drive your car at 40?" The answer would be "in certain situations, certainly. Can be too fast and it can be too slow." So an answer of "I can't answer without more context" would be fine.
None of that is what I saw.
Let me give you another chance to answer a simple yes or no question.
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Since it's obvious that democrats are all criminals and baby-eaters, is Elizabeth Warren a democrat?
Yes or no. No hemming or hawing. I'll interrupt you as soon as I hear any words besides those two. Your answer or failure to answer will appear as a headline in the New York Times.
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The chair was responding to the statement made in the question, the congressman just didn't like what that response was, which is why he kept interrupting.
Though, I'll bite. What statement is made by the question "Is ETH a security?" Why is that a question that can't be answered with "Yes", "No", or "it depends how it is packaged"?
The chair's answer was, as we can glean from the interruptions (but who the hell really knows, the man's not allowed to finish a sentence) 'It depends'.
And note that some things can be both a security while wrapped around a commodity. Just look at brokered CDs. Such that, even if you agreed that ETH is a commodity, you can still have financial instruments on ETH that are securities.
I honestly don't know how you can say that with a straight face if you have ever looked into this for more than 5 minutes.
The regulation is not clear and they refuse to clarify when asked on many important topics. Compare that to other security related issues, where regulators are very proactive about clearly defining what is what, publishing explainers, etc. etc.