Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, said taken to X (formerly Twitter) to debunk some misinformation regarding Ethereum (ETH).
Grewal, who has served as the exchange's CLO since August 2020, noted that millions of Americans own the largest altcoin. Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of cryptocurrency to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Conflicting views
According to Fortune, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to classify Ethereum as a security. As part of his aggressive campaign, he has subpoenaed several companies.
Prior to this, Coindesk revealed that the Ethereum Foundation was under investigation by a public authority.
However, as Grewal pointed out, Gensler himself had previously stated that Ethereum was not a security.
Bill Hinman, the former director of the SEC's Division of Corporate Finance, recognized Ethereum as non-security (but not without controversy). Additionally, the SEC's own lawyers compared the second-largest cryptocurrency to Bitcoin (which has been repeatedly recognized as a commodity by the SEC).
Backlash in Congress
Congressman Patrick McHenry (NC-10) also targeted at Gensler following recent reports of the SEC's attempts to unilaterally classify Ethereum as a security.
According to McHenry, this contradicts the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's position on this issue. “Congress decides the jurisdiction and budget of the SEC, Chairman Gensler cannot make it up as he goes along,” he said.
During a 2023 congressional hearing, McHenry criticized Gensler for the alleged lack of market clarity. However, Gensler has repeatedly refused to share his views on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.