SEC Implicitly Recognizes Ether Is Not A Security In $1.5 Million Settlement With eToro ⋆ ZyCrypto

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has signaled that it considers Ether (ETH), the industry’s second-biggest crypto, as a non-security in its settlement with the global financial trading platform, eToro.

As part of the settlement deal, eToro agreed to pay a penalty and to offer only a limited set of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, and Bitcoin Cash, available for trading in the United States.

eToro Settles With SEC For $1.5 Million

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a Sept. 12 statement that eToro had agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to settle the regulator’s charges alleging it operated as an unregistered broker and clearing agency.

The SEC indicated that the Israel-based trading platform allows U.S. customers to “trade crypto assets offered and sold as securities, but eToro did not comply with the registration provisions of the federal securities laws.”

As part of the settlement, eToro will halt supporting several cryptocurrencies in the U.S., requiring customers in the nation to close their existing positions within six months (or by March 2025). Users can also transfer supported assets to eToro Wallet, a digital wallet rolled out alongside eToro’s cryptocurrency trading platform in 2019. After the grace period elapses, eToro indicated that any remaining positions will be liquidated, and clients will be credited with the cash balances.

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eToro previously offered a handful of popular crypto assets on its U.S. platform, including Dogecoin (DOGE) and Avalanche (AVAX). Overall, U.S. customers had access to 74 different cryptocurrencies, suggesting that roughly 95% of the digital assets on eToro’s platform will have been delisted after the changes are implemented. The company agreed to cease trading for these assets without admitting to or denying the SEC’s findings.

The SEC posited in the statement that, going forward, the only cryptocurrencies available for U.S. customers to trade on the firm’s platform will be Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum (ETH).

The exclusion of the majority of cryptocurrencies might have sent a crystal clear message about the SEC’s stance on which assets qualify as securities. The top Wall Street watchdog allowing eToro to continue offering its customers Ether trading could mean it considers ETH a commodity despite secretly viewing the asset as an unregistered security earlier.