In the heat of SEC’s enforcement actions against Binance and Coinbase, a simple “Yes” by Jack Dorsey on Twitter elicited a flurry of comments.
It all started when a Twitter user asked Dorsey if he thinks Ether is a security, to which he answered in the affirmative.
A known Bitcoin supporter, Dorsey has pointed out dissatisfaction with Ether in the past as well. In the latest episode, the former Twitter CEO tweeted a screenshot of a 2015 post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, where he termed altcoins “distractions” and argued that they should be focused on Bitcoin.
Then he went to retweet a video of Jack Mallers, CEO of Bitcoin Lighting app Strike, which calls out Coinbase CEO for prioritizing altcoins over bitcoin and the Lightning Network.
In fact, Dorsey’s take that Coinbase should focus on Bitcoin is not entirely his own. In the aftermath of the SEC lawsuit against Coinbase, various experts have put forth their suggestions. One from Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at Riot Platforms, suggested that Coinbase should refocus on Bitcoin.
Twitter founder Dorsey stepped down as its CEO in November 2021 to focus on his digital payments company — Block Inc.
For his bravado, Dorsey earned some nasty trolls, such as being called “Clowns” by Udi Wertheimer of Taproot Wizards.
“Jack is the kind of MAXIs that keep this technology behind even after 200 years from now. So the less “Jack’s” we have, the better for the whole industry,” a Twitter user commented.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and Coinbase on June 5 and June 6, respectively. It charged the two biggest crypto trading platforms with operating as exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies without proper licenses.
At the root of the SEC action is the classification of cryptocurrencies. In its chargesheet against Coinbase, SEC has alleged that the latter facilitates trade in large-cap securities such as SOL, ADA, MATIC, and so on. Interestingly, both the SEC and the CFTC treat Bitcoin as a commodity but don’t offer a final decision on Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Despite a lack of regulation for the crypto industry, the SEC tends to treat the rest of the cryptocurrencies as securities, while the CFTC asks for jurisdiction and greater regulatory oversight on the asset class.