Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for decoding
Cryptocurrency Twitter often makes a big contribution to the law, but in the past seven days it has done double that.
On Monday, unredacted portions of a lawsuit filed by Ethereum software company ConsenSys against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were made public. revealed Regulators have been secretly treating ETH as a security for over a year.
The bombshell news quickly sparked anger and outrage, given the fact that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has repeatedly refused to publicly comment on the agency's position on ETH over that time.
Even prominent American politicians joined in the discussion. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, posted a harsh statement on Twitter on Tuesday. Blame Gensler claimed that he lied when testifying before Congress about the regulatory status of ETH by not disclosing prior internal SEC decisions on the matter.
Moving from the U.S. House of Representatives to federal court, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Chao declared On the same day, he will be sentenced to four months in prison in a U.S. federal prison. Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty last year to money laundering violations. While it was certainly significant that another founder of a major cryptocurrency exchange was sent to prison, the punishment was much lighter than the three-year sentence prosecutors had hoped for.
Indeed, the sentiment circulating on Twitter after the sentencing hearing was quite light-hearted, with many joking that they had predicted their own sentence based on Zhao's sentence. famous usage Using the number 4 as a signal to dismiss cynical developments of “fear, uncertainty and doubt”; or FUD.
Zhao himself also shared his plans for life after prison on Twitter shortly after the sentencing hearing, claiming he had accepted the outcome of the trial, writing: “I'll take my time”
If that wasn't enough crime code news for the day, just hours later the US Department of Justice announced: Paid Roger Ver, known in some circles as “Bitcoin Jesus,” was an early Bitcoin investor who evaded nearly $50 million in taxes. Barr was arrested by Spanish authorities on Tuesday.
Many people on Twitter criticized the arrest as an unfair anti-crypto provocation, given that Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014.
Others showed indifference to Va's plight and justified his position. controversial Individuality in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Some have found ways to reconcile both perspectives.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
