TL; DR
Full story
We’ve used this analogy twice in the past – but man, if it isn’t still relevant…
Remember that scene (☝️) in the groundbreaking 1999 blockbuster, Big Daddy?
The one where Adam Sandler and his semi-adopted son play cards, and no matter what hand the kid has, he moves the goalposts so he can win?
It’s cute in the context of a movie, but when supervisors make similar moves it just feels slimy.
Confused? This is what we’re talking about:
There are fears that the SEC is about to label the Ethereum token as a security (think a share of a company), rather than a commodity (i.e. an immutable ‘thing’, like gold or oil ).
The SEC’s basic argument is that: ETH is constantly being updated and changed, and is therefore a security.
Although the argument from the crypto side is: sure, the Ethereum ecosystem continues to update and change, but the ETH token is still the same as it ever was (a vehicle for transferring value and paying for network fees).
This is where the shifting goalposts come into play:
In October last year, the SEC approved an Ethereum futures ETF to go live on US exchanges (aka: a way for traders to bet on the future price of Ethereum), classifying ETH as a commodity.
So to claim that ETH is suddenly a security goes against their past actions.
Good news:
The world of legal and political pain this flip-flop would cause for the SEC is a major deterrent – potentially enough to keep them from doing this.
Bad news is:
By simply remaining tight-lipped on whether or not US companies will be sued for building on or supporting Ethereum – the SEC could deter much of the US-based ETH adoption.
(And by proxy: adoption of “anything that isn’t Bitcoin”).
Rough!