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Consensys announced a major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants as the Enforcement Division of the SEC has responded that it is closing its Ethereum 2.0 investigation. This news comes after a letter sent by Consensys to the SEC in June to confirm that the ETH ETF approval in May, which was based on ether being a commodity, meant that the agency would close its Ethereum 2.0 investigation.
While it was great news for the Ethereum community, it was not well received by the XRP community as it lashed out at SEC over its biased approach.
Previously, Consensys had sued the SEC on April 25, 2024, to defend the Ethereum ecosystem, seeking a court order to halt the SEC’s investigation, stating the reason ETH is a commodity and, therefore, the SEC lacks jurisdiction to investigate or regulate it.
XRP Community Confronts SEC’s Actions
Bill Morgan has highlighted the unfair treatment towards Ripple stating that Ethereum received a second pass from the SEC nearly six years after the Hinman speech, which provided clarity on the non-security status of Ethereum. He also underscored the SEC’s arbitrary approach towards crypto regulations through the different treatment.
Furthermore, the Pseudonymous analyst @digitalassetby also voiced strong criticism against the SEC’s regulatory actions, pointing out that Ripple had spent over $100 million so far to deal with the SEC’s regulatory issues over the last years, while Ethereum did not.
A recent SEC filing has offered a calculation based on the settlement with Terraform Labs, suggesting a significantly lower penalty than the proposed $2 billion in its remedies-related opening brief.
ETH ETF Approval To Go Further?
Notably, this development of the closure of its investigation further fuels speculation of the upcoming ETH ETF approval as the SEC cannot approve the public trading of a company it is in the crosshairs with.
Ethereum’s price increased by 2.78% and is currently trading at $3,544. Interestingly, a whale who had withdrawn over 16000 ETH over the past 19 days purchased 5,603 ETH worth $19.7 million an hour after the SEC announced its suspension of the Ethereum investigation.