United States Senator Cynthia Lummis says Ether is now a security following the Merge event and the transition of the Ethereum blockchain from the proof-of-work consensus to a proof-of-stake mechanism.
While speaking at CoinDesk TV’s “All About Bitcoin” program, Sen. Lummis stated “It’s a security because of the way [it] moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. The inability to [unstake tokens] right now makes it susceptible to being [considered] a security.”
Sen. Lummis added that it’s starting to look more like bitcoin is the only thing that would qualify as a commodity. The politician has been a Bitcoin enthusiast for a long time.
Sen. Lummis did say that it is possible ether will become “sufficiently decentralized that it could later be deemed a commodity.”
In September, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler sharpened his stance on PoS crypto being classified as securities saying it might pass the Howey test used by courts to determine whether an asset is a security.
Lummis finds it understandable that FTX founder SBF would decline an invitation from Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Service Committee, to attend a congressional hearing on the demise of his exchange.
Also Read: Maxine Waters Urges SBF to Attend the December 13 Hearing
The senator thinks that rather than speaking before Congress to improve his public image, Bankman-Fried should concentrate on navigating the bankruptcy process.
Following the collapse of FTX, Lummis has been pushing her bipartisan bill titled ‘Responsible Financial Innovation Act’ saying that if it was already enacted we could’ve prevented FTXs demise.
Lummis stated, “The type of rehypothecation that was going on with FTX and some of the other attributes of FTX which caused it to fail would have been prevented had the Lummis-Gillibrand bill been in effect.”
The collapse of FTX, according to Lummis, has only heightened more emphatic enthusiasm for the reintroduction of the Lummis-Gillibrand bill in the incoming Congress next month.
