US regulators are looking into Ethereum

US federal regulators are currently studying whether Ethereum can be considered a security. According to the Wall Street Journal, regulators at the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are examining whether many cryptocurrencies - not just ICOs - should be regulated under federal securities laws.

Ether is currently the second most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of approximately $67 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, regulators are assessing whether Ethereum's creators "have a significant impact on its value, just as the price of a company's shares depends on the strategy, investments and activities of its founders."

For example, last year, the price of Ethereum fell slightly immediately after false information appeared online that its creator Vitalik Buterin had died in a car accident, although some experts believe that the project has reached the point where such an incident will no longer bring it significant harm. 

Regulators are also looking at what level of demand for ether comes from people who use it on decentralized platforms on the network and people who buy it purely for its investment potential. 

According to CCN, a working group consisting of representatives of venture capital firms and lawyers meeted with representatives of the SEC in an attempt to convince the agency to take into account their official clarifications that ether and some ICO tokens cannot be considered securities, however, according to the source, the agency refused them request. 

Gary Gensler, former chairman of the CFTC, recently said that he would classify Ethereum and Ripple as “non-qualified securities,” although he acknowledged that regulators may decide otherwise as Ethereum has become even more decentralized since its inception. 

Jay Clayton, chairman of the SEC, told a congressional subcommittee last week that bitcoin is strictly a medium of exchange that has been “defined by most people not as a security.” The publication in the magazine confirms that Bitcoin is not currently on the regulatory agenda.

According to https://www.ccn.com