The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a big victory, with Judge Reed O'Connor dismissing the Consensys lawsuit against the regulatory agency.
As reported by U.Today, the Ethereum development studio sued the SEC in April, accusing the regulator of trying to expand its jurisdiction by trying to regulate Ether. It was seeking injunctive and declaratory relief. The company wanted to declare that Ether is a non-security while also seeking to shield the MetaMask wallet from the regulator. Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin described this as "an important step towards preserving access to ether and by extension the Ethereum blockchain in the U.S."
In June, the SEC notified Consensys that it had closed its investigation into Ethereum 2.0. However, the agency's battle against the Ethereum development studio was far from over. The SEC ended up taking the software development company to court over Metamask's swap and staking services during the same month.
Alex DovbnyaIn his ruling, O'Connor agreed that Consensys had failed to identify the final agency action that would make the MetaMask claim fit for judicial review. None of the actions identified by Consensys, such as an SEC enforcement action against another company and a Wells Notice, were final. As for the Wells Notice, the court noted that it did not mark the consummation of the SEC's decision-making process.
Tomiwabold OlajideFurthermore, the Ethereum developer has failed to show it will "suffer hardship from withholding judicial review of its claim." The SEC relied on the Walmart v. DOJ case to argue that Consensys's claims were unripe.
In its social media statement, Consensys expressed disappointment following the recent ruling. Yet, Consensys noted that the fact that the Ethereum 2.0 survived the SEC was already a major win.
Vladislav Sopov
Tomiwabold Olajide
Dan Burgin