The Ethereum community celebrated a big win on Tuesday after Consensys, an Ethereum infrastructure company, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no longer intends to bring charges against the firm.
A June 18 letter from the SEC’s division of enforcement noted that they had concluded their investigation related to Ethereum 2.0.
“Ethereum survives the SEC,” said Consensys in a post on X, calling the development a “major win” for developers, technology providers and industry participants.
It comes after Consensys filed a lawsuit against the SEC in April, seeking a court order to halt the regulator’s investigation on the grounds that ether should be considered a commodity and is outside the regulator’s purview.
The SEC’s letter also comes as a response to an inquiry sent by Consensys on June 7, asking the regulator to confirm whether the approval of spot ether ETFs implied that the agency does, in fact, view ether as a commodity and intends to close its investigation.
“No company or individual should find itself in our position, having to resort to costly litigation to obtain clarity about what is and is not lawful,” said Consensys in a statement posted to its website.
Following the news, onchain blockchain wallet tracker Lookonchain found that an Ethereum whale bought 5,603 ETH, worth around $19.6 million at the time. The same whale has withdrawn around $59 million worth of ether from Binance since May 30.
Data from market intelligence platform Santiment appears to indicate that market sentiment could be shifting from Bitcoin to Ethereum. Santiment noted that Bitcoin holders saw their biggest three-day drop in non-empty wallets on Tuesday, while Ethereum wallets have been growing in number.
It is likely that whales could be driving much of this activity, with Santiment’s onchain data showing that whales have sold 50,000 BTC, worth $3.3 billion, between June 5 and June 15, while whales have acquired 700,000 ETH. worth $2.5 billion, in the last three weeks
Things have been heating up on the spot ether ETF front as well, with Bitwise amending its S-1 filing, likely incorporating changes from the SEC’s first round of comments. The updated filing also indicates that venture firm Pantera Capital has expressed an interest into buying $100 million worth of shares in Bitwise’s ether ETF, should it be approved.
