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Bitcoin, as one of the methods of raising funds during the recently bred ICO, may not attract increased attention of regulators, but Ethereum may be more interesting to American regulators and recognized as a securities trading on stock exchanges. This writes the Wall Street Journal.

According to the publication, currently the Federal financial regulators of the United States are analyzing the assets created on the Ethereum Protocol. Using a number of criteria, they try to establish whether the creators of digital currencies have a significant impact on their price, as is the case with stock exchanges. The price of the latter largely depends on the strategy implemented by the company that released them.

The us commodity futures trading Commission (CFTC) currently considers bitcoin a commodity, which formally exempts it from the supervision of the securities and exchange Commission (SEC), but in the case of Ethereum, the situation is somewhat different.

So, writes WSJ, some regulators not only believe that Ethereum is "in the gray zone", but also do not exclude that the creation of this cryptocurrency in 2014 could be carried out in violation of the laws on the distribution of securities.

Under U.S. law, companies engaged in securities-or bonds are required either to register with the SEC and to comply with all the requirements regarding the disclosure of information about the owners of the firm, or to restrict the access to the sale of their securities. In the latter case, the distribution of shares is possible only among accredited investors.

In 2014, when Ethereum was only created, none of these conditions was fulfilled, the newspaper notes.

It is also argued that financial regulators look closely at the activities of "certain persons" who could have an impact on the development of the network. So, in the sphere of their attention were representatives of the Ethereum Foundation. Formally, this non-profit organization is responsible for the development of the network, but, as the regulators believe, its representatives can influence the price of cryptocurrency. For example, Ethereum Foundation pays bounties to detect bugs and vulnerabilities.

Ethereum Foundation has collected more than 31 000 BTC, or $18.3 million in July of 2014, selling about 60 million ETH. At that time, the Fund raised money for the development of the software platform, and investors could buy the asset, expecting it to grow in price. Therefore, this process resembles the sale of securities, according to the WSJ source.

# "There has not been such a legal precedent yet," cites former CFTC head Gary Gensler.

In addition, regulators are studying other factors relevant to ETH pricing. For example, how actively cryptocurrency is used in the work of decentralized applications created on The Ethereum blockchain.

Recall that at the end of April, the above-mentioned Gary Gensler said that such cryptocurrencies as Ethereum and Ripple could be issued in violation of US law in the field of securities.



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