The lack of pressure from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the second cryptocurrency by capitalization – Ethereum – is the result of a bribe that the project team gave to the regulator. So consider representatives of the disgraced crypto project LBRY.
What’s happened
The LBRY team is convinced that corruption is rampant in the US regulatory environment and that a bribe is the only way to keep the crypto business alive.
The LBRY team posted a tweet in the background appearances in the media that former SEC chief William Hinman allegedly met with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 2018. This became known from documents published as part of the Commission’s showdown with Ripple, which have been dragging on since December 2020. Recall that the SEC accused the project of illegally issuing securities in the form of XRP tokens.
LBRY clash with SEC
LBRY has a long history of litigation with the SEC. In March 2021, the Commission accused the company of illegally selling securities in the form of LBRY Credit Tokens (LBC) cryptocurrency. In November 2022, the crypto project lost a legal battle with the SEC. In February 2023, the court recognized the sale of LBRY tokens on the secondary market as legal. Later, in May, the SEC revised the penalty for the project. Previously, the Commission demanded that LBRY pay a fine of $22 million. Against the background of the project’s victory in court, the SEC reduced the amount to $111,614.
Ripple and LBRY are far from the only projects that have received accusations from the SEC for illegally issuing unregistered crypto-currency securities. Over 60 coins were blacklisted by the Commission. Ethereum is not among them. At the same time, the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, hinted at the possibility of recognizing ETH as a security.
Source: Cryptocurrency
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