Recently, a New York court dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit against leading decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap.
The lawsuit alleged that Uniswap was responsible for causing harm to investors by allowing the issuance and trading of fraudulent tokens on the protocol.
We will not go into all the details of the case, the big conclusion is this...
In her ruling, Judge Katherine Polk Failla (more on her in a moment) classified Ethereum as a commodity... something the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not done.
This is a big win for cryptocurrencies. This is why…
It would put Ethereum under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) instead of the SEC.
The main difference between the two agencies is that the SEC regulates securities trading and the CFTC regulates commodities trading.
While the SEC is doing everything it can to derail cryptocurrency adoption... The CFTC is partnering with the industry on regulatory reform.
That ruling comes on the heels of Tuesday's major court victory for Grayscale Investments.
The company applied to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The SEC rejected his request.
However, a federal appeals court sided with Grayscale and ordered the SEC to vacate its rejection of Grayscale's ETF filing.
In the order, the court's panel of judges said the SEC was "arbitrary and capricious" in approving bitcoin futures ETFs but rejecting a spot bitcoin ETF.
In July, the SEC also lost a lawsuit against Ripple claiming that the founders were selling unregistered securities with the sale of its XRP token.
The judge in that case ruled that XRP is a security when sold to institutional investors, but not when sold to the public on exchanges like Coinbase.
This was a big win for the entire space because the SEC attempted to label all cryptocurrencies as securities except bitcoin. This ruling contradicts that idea.
And do you remember Judge Failla?
She is presiding over the SEC's case against Coinbase, the country's largest crypto exchange. So this is another good sign for cryptocurrencies.
Now, let me be very clear: nothing is easy when it comes to cryptocurrencies and their adoption. So I fully expect the SEC to drag its feet and come up with new reasons why it doesn't want to approve a bitcoin ETF.
But the writing is on the wall. We will get a bitcoin ETF. The court came out unanimous and simply executed every point the SEC tried to make about why it should not allow a spot-settled bitcoin ETF.
For me, it's not a question of whether we will have an ETF, it's just a matter of time. Now that this decision is in place, a huge hurdle to the approval of bitcoin ETFs has been removed.
I think the war is not over yet. The SEC delayed a decision on spot bitcoin ETF applications from BlackRock, Fidelity and several other financial firms.
So don't expect him to go down without a fight.
But the evidence is written... We are getting much more regulatory clarity around cryptocurrencies.
And once the SEC approves a spot bitcoin ETF the race is on.
So take advantage of this pause in the cryptocurrency market to position yourself now. Once the train leaves the station, it will be too late.
This is all for now. What is your opinion about this article? I would love to read you in the comments.
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Erika Espinal
