blockworks.co
The lawsuit launched by Consensys against the Securities and Exchange Commission and SEC Chair Gary Gensler was dismissed in a Texas court on Thursday night.
The Consensys suit was originally filed in April and contained some bombshells including the allegation that the SEC had opened an investigation into Ethereum and that the regulator had issued the company behind MetaMask a Wells notice.
“On April 10, 2024, the SEC staff sent Consensys a ‘Wells Notice’ stating its intent to imminently recommend that the Commission bring an enforcement action against Consensys for violating the federal securities laws through its MetaMask Swaps and MetaMask Staking products,” the April filing said.
The notice gave the company a heads-up that the SEC had concluded an investigation and was mulling a lawsuit, but it didn’t necessarily mean that the regulator would file a suit.
Though the SEC has, since the April filing, filed its own lawsuit against Consensys. The regulator targeted MetaMask Swaps, and claimed that Lido and Rocket Pool are unregistered securities.
Judge Reed O’Connor noted that in his decision on Thursday as he dismissed the claims about MetaMask’s offerings.
“Similarly, the enforcement actions do not constitute final agency actions,” he wrote. “The Notice neither marks the consummation of the agency’s—i.e., SEC’s— decision making process nor establishes Plaintiff’s legal rights or obligations.”
The claims around ETH brought by Consensys were dismissed as moot — unsurprising given that the SEC announced it was dropping its investigation into ETH earlier this summer right as it gave the ether ETFs the green light.
Consensys and the SEC didn’t immediately return requests for comment.