A Texas federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by blockchain development company ConsenSys against the Securities and Exchange Commission and five of its commissioners, including Chairman Gary Gensler.
The lawsuit, filed in April, asks the court to recognize that Ether (ETH ) is not a security and that “ ConsenSys ’ sales of ETH were not securities transactions.”
ConsenSys also confirmed that the SEC has opened an investigation into Ethereum and intends to regulate it as a security, noting that the agency has sent Wells notices regarding aspects of its MetaMask wallet software.
In a September 19 order, Judge Reed O'Connor dismissed ConsenSys ' requests regarding MetaMask, arguing that “enforcement actions do not constitute final agency action.”
O'Connor stressed that the Wells notice “does not mark the completion of the agency's – i.e., the SEC's – decision-making process, nor does it establish Plaintiff's legal rights or obligations,” nor does it “impose legal consequences” on ConsenSys.
Judge O'Connor also dismissed as invalid ConsenSys ' requests for an SEC investigation into ETH after the company said in July that the regulator had dropped its investigation.
“Unfortunately, today the Texas court dismissed our lawsuit on procedural grounds without XEM the merits of our claims against the SEC,” ConsenSys stated in a September 19 post on X.
In April 2024, ConsenSys filed a lawsuit to protect the Ethereum ecosystem from the SEC's overreach and stand up for an industry that has been subjected to the agency's indiscriminate enforcement.
Unfortunately, today a Texas court dismissed our lawsuit…
— ConsenSys (ConsenSys) September 19, 2024
“The SEC dropped its investigation into “Ethereum 2.0” after our lawsuit was filed, and today the Texas court recognized that the SEC provided ConsenSys with the relief it sought on this important issue for the Ethereum ecosystem,” it added.
This is a developing story, and more information will be added as it becomes available.
