In the early hours of September 15, Ethereum completed "The Merge – the long-awaited transition from its original proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake.Later that day, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler pointed to the staking mechanism as a signal that an asset might be a security as determined by the Howey test.There has been much discussion over whether cryptocurrencies in general or individually should be considered securities, commodities, or possibly even something else. Broadly, people within the crypto community don't want to see the assets fall under SEC jurisdiction, as the SEC is seen as much less friendly to the industry than the CFTC.
This. Here’s the video, and it’s absolutely worth a watch. Easy to watch in batches (it’s >2h long), I watched it over a week or so. Very well argued and evidenced.
While we’re at it, we need to talk about “market caps” and crypto-asset valuation. Molly White wrote a fantastic deep-dive into it. Tl;dr is: cryptocurrency valuation is inflated to high haven by what can best be described as “creative accounting”. Which is to say:
Bingo.