Consensys creator Joseph Lubin asserted in a recent interview with CNBC that Ethereum (ETH), the cryptocurrency that runs the Ethereum network, should be categorised as a commodity.
In order to corroborate his claims, Lubin used prior statements made by regulatory agencies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite this, Gary Gensler, the head of the SEC, has not yet declared Ether to be a commodity, despite having done so for Bitcoin.
In the interview, Lubin referred to Bill Hinman’s 2018 lecture, which he claimed effectively declared Ether to not be a security. The co-founder of Ethereum emphasized that 18 of Hinman’s coworkers contributed to the speech, demonstrating agreement within the SEC at the time. He did not consider it to be a major problem, although he acknowledged that some regulators would still be reluctant to accept that Ether is not a security.
Lubin also discussed the development of the bitcoin market during the previous 12 months. He emphasised the importance of the initiative to “clean up the CeFi rot” and cited successful advancements and launches in 2022 as evidence. For not adhering to the decentralised concept of cryptocurrencies, CeFi, or centralised finance, has received a lot of flak in the past. Despite how strong Lubin’s claims are, they have no bearing on the official classifications of ether. Ether has yet to receive official certification from Gensler and the SEC defining it as a commodity.
DApps On Ethereum Network Slows Down
Despite a 60% reduction in gas costs, DApp usage on the Ethereum network stalled out. Notably, on June 26, the seven-day average transaction cost fell to $3.7 from $9 four weeks earlier.
DApp active addresses decreased by 27% over the same time period as well.
Uniswap and MetaMask Swap accounted for a substantial portion of the loss, whereas the majority of nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces experienced an increase in their unique active wallets (UAW).
Despite Uniswap NFT Aggregator’s underwhelming result, OpenSea, Blur, Manifold, LooksRare, and Unick saw a respectable increase in user traffic.
The fact that the total value locked (TVL), which tracks the deposits locked in Ethereum smart contracts, has dropped to its lowest level since August 2020, is more worrisome. According to DefiLlama, the indicator dropped from 13.9 million ETH on April 28 to 13.9 million ETH on June 28.
