Ethereum is in a tough spot. It has been for a while now, with its price entering the sub-$1300 level and hitting the support around the $1280 mark.
Ether appears to be consolidating around the $1,358 level and is preparing to make its next move.
Pushing up against the new $1,380 resistance has been going on since yesterday, September 19, and is expected to continue for at least a few more days. If the bulls manage to break this level, ether’s price may manage to move right back up to the $1,700 level.
Conversely, if the bears win yet again, the price of ether is expected to move even lower than the $1,300 mark and may see ether going as low as $1,200 or, as some analysts even predict, the $1,020 level.
The SEC’s Jurisdiction and Ethereum
Asides from tackling Ripple Labs and XRP, the SEC seems to now have the time to deal with the Ethereum network, especially now that the merge is complete. Ethereum is now a proof of stake network, and cryptocurrency has become slightly more popular.
The SEC has made new claims that Ethereum transactions are concentrated in the United States because the Ethereum network’s nodes are concentrated more densely there than in any other country.
This new lawsuit was filed on September 19 against crypto YouTuber and researcher Ian Balina. In this lawsuit, the SEC alleges that Balina offered unregistered Sparkster (SPRK) tokens after forming an investing pool on the social platform, telegram in 2018.
SEC Allegation
The SEC also alleges that because some of the participants in Balina’s investing pool lived in the US, some Ethereum network nodes were also involved in validating transactions. As a result, the transactions validated by these nodes took place in the US.
It is currently unclear whether these arguments will hold up in court, but it is worth mentioning that about 42% of the Ethereum network’s nodes (about 7807 of them) are indeed in the US, according to data from Ethernodes.
There has been some speculation as to whether cases like these will hold in court, especially since the distribution of Ethereum nodes is mainly irrelevant to the case at hand.
Before this, the SEC has been criticized for its regulatory approach towards crypto, tagged by some as ‘enforced regulation.’ the outcome of this court case remains to be seen over the coming weeks.
Disclaimer: The author’s comments and recommendations are solely for educational and informative purposes. They do not represent any financial or investment advice. Always DYOR (do your own research)
