When the SEC filed a federal lawsuit Monday against crypto influencer Ian Balina for his failure to register a cryptocurrency as a security before launching a 2018 initial coin offering (ICO), everything at first appeared run-of-the-mill: the SEC has, for years, filed civil suits against individuals and organizations for rolling out unregistered ICOs.Â
Eagle-eyed observers then read a little further into the fine print.Â
In a bold and potentially unprecedented move buried in the lawsuit’s 69th paragraph, the SEC today claimed it had the right to sue Balina not only because his case concerns transactions made in the United States, but also because, essentially, the entire Ethereum network falls under the US government’s purview.
In its complaint, the regulator noted that the ETH sent to Balina was “validated by a network of nodes on the Ethereum blockchain, which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country.” The SEC then concludes: “As a result, those transactions took place in the United States.”
The SEC appears to be suggesting that, because more of Ethereum’s validating nodes currently operate in the United States than in any other country, all Ethereum transactions globally should be considered of American origin. Currently, 45.85% of all Ethereum nodes operate from the United States, according to Etherscan. The second-greatest density of nodes is in Germany, with only 19%, by comparison.
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