The court approved the schedule of hearings in the SEC case against ConsenSys, which will be held in an accelerated mode from July 29 to November 26. This was announced by the company's lawyer Bill Hughes.
Important News about about @Consensys v. Gensler. Judge O'Connor granted our request that he consider the merits of our case on an expedited basis: whether the SEC has Congressional authority to regulate MetaMask as a securities broker and issuer. Those questions would be… pic.twitter.com/B6jFQebjCk
— Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) July 2, 2024"Important news about ConsenSys against [the head of the regulator] Gary Gensler. Judge Reed O'Connor granted our request that he consider our case on the merits in an expedited manner: does the SEC have congressional authority to regulate MetaMask as a broker and issuer of securities," the publication says, to which the schedule of meetings is attached.
Hughes noted that these issues will be considered "along with any arguments that the SEC will put forward so that [the company] does not bring a case against them."
On June 28, the Commission sued ConsenSys. According to the lawsuit, since October 2020, the firm has been "operating as an unregistered securities broker", and since January 2023 has been engaged in their sale through MetaMask Betting. In particular, the liquid betting services Lido and Rocket Pool are mentioned.
Prior to that, ConsenSys had filed claims against the SEC and its five unnamed employees due to "oversight of ETH." In it, she called on the court to officially approve the wording in which the asset would not be considered a security.
https://forklog.com/news/sec-schitala-ethereum-tsennoj-bumagoj-eksperty-sprognozirovali-zatyazhnuyu-tyazhbu-s-consensysOther people's arguments
On June 29, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District Court of the District of Columbia partially dismissed the SEC's lawsuit against the Binance crypto exchange, but upheld most of the charges.
The satisfied petition of the exchange regarding the removal of claims regarding the secondary sales of the BNB token, the BUSD stablecoin offer, as well as the Simple Earn product, is likely to help other companies in litigation with the regulator.
Over the past couple of days, Coinbase and Ripple have referred several times to the judge's ruling in the Binance and SEC case.
According to a document filed by the American crypto exchange, Judge Jackson's opinion "exacerbates the confusion caused by the SEC in the industry."
"Binance also supports the requirement for the SEC to participate in the development of rules on digital assets. [...] rulemaking is required here, as the Commission has adopted a new and radical, but still vague view of securities laws — one that it has never explained coherently, but is trying to impose on the digital asset industry," Coinbase said in a motion.
Over the past few years, the company has been seeking from the SEC to develop clear rules for the industry. In July 2022, the trading platform filed a petition with the Commission, and in April 2023, it already appealed to the court.
In June 2024, Coinbase sued the SEC and the FDIC for non-transparency of information.
In another statement, the crypto exchange also referred to the judge's decision in the Binance case:
"[The ruling] highlights the urgent need to review the appeal to clarify the application of securities laws and regulation of cryptocurrency market participants."
Ripple Labs also used the Binance case in its argument. The company referred to Judge Jackson's position that cryptocurrencies "do not quite fit" into the Howey test, and the decision to control each individual firm "is not an effective way of acting."
"This observation supports Ripple's argument that providing clarity on the legality of various types of XRP sales was the most important aspect of the summary judgment," the documents say.
https://forklog.com/news/sec-zaprosit-dlya-ripple-labs-shtraf-v-summe-2-mlrdRecall that in April 2024, the largest decentralized exchange Uniswap received a warning from the department about a possible lawsuit.
In June, ConsenSys reported that the SEC's enforcement division had closed an investigation into Ethereum 2.0. The agency took this step after the organization sent a letter asking for clarification of the asset class when approving spot ETH-ETFs.