According to Jinshi, market speculation that U.S. regulators may relax their scrutiny of the blockchain ecosystem behind Ethereum has driven Ethereum's best gains this week. Ether is the token of the Ethereum blockchain, the most important network for cryptocurrency-based financial services. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation into the Ethereum Foundation has raised uncertainty about whether Ethereum is an unregistered security, which could affect demand for the digital asset.
Ethereum developer Consensys posted a message saying, "The SEC Enforcement Division has informed us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0." The SEC did not immediately respond to the statement. While Bitcoin is considered a commodity, the SEC believes that most other tokens are unregistered securities and should be subject to its regulation. The SEC chairman has been ambiguous about whether Ethereum is a security. Crypto enthusiasts are worried that the token, and potential projects based on the Ethereum blockchain, will be subject to the agency's strict and expensive regulations.