In a rather surprising development today, Coindesk claimed that an investigation was opened against the Ethereum Foundation by state authorities.
However, the name of the state that opened the investigation is not clear. The investigation was discovered after the removal of text on the Ethereum Foundation website warning that they had not been contacted by any government agency. However, there was no confirmation of the incident neither by Ethereum nor by government officials.
The Ethereum Foundation, which aims to support the development of ETH as a non-profit organization, is based in Switzerland. They have no official ties to ETH, but they played a major role in both the founding and development of the altcoin.
It is also a matter of debate whether the investigation in question is significant or not. Regarding the issue, Mike Selig, a lawyer specialized in the field of cryptocurrency, said the following in his statement:
“It is extremely common for cryptocurrency protocol foundations to receive voluntary requests for information from federal and state regulators. “Subpoenas are as normal as the sunrise for a crypto organization.”
In other words, according to the lawyer, there is no reason to panic about the latest development and it probably stems from a normal request for information exchange.
Another cryptocurrency lawyer, Scott Johnsson, explained his thoughts on the subject as follows:
“I have some thoughts on this. I think this has to do with the ETF as well as the Coinbase/Binance enforcement actions. The SEC has been in an untenable position for some time with its stance on ETH. This is either an attempt to further maintain its uncertainty or an attempt by the SEC to get completely out of control .”
*This is not investment advice.
