The U.S. SEC may imply jurisdiction over all transactions on the Ethereum network

Chain Catcher News, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against crypto KOL Ian Balina for promoting the unregistered cryptocurrency asset SPRK from Sparkster. In paragraph 69 of the complaint, the SEC states, "The ETH sent to Ian Balina was validated through a network of nodes on the Ethereum blockchain, which has a higher cluster density in the U.S. than in any other country, thus determining that these transactions occurred in the U.S." The SEC may imply that, due to the current number of Ethereum validating nodes operating in the U.S. being greater than in any other country, all Ethereum transactions globally should be considered as occurring in the U.S., and the SEC claims jurisdiction over all activities on the Ethereum network.

Brian Fyre, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, pointed out that while the complaint has no legal force and it is unlikely that the court will comment on this specific issue in the case, this does not mean the statement is without significance. This is the first time we see the SEC truly articulate how it understands the operation of the Ethereum ecosystem and why it believes Ethereum falls under the SEC's regulatory scope.

According to Etherscan data, currently, 45.85% of Ethereum nodes are from the U.S., while the second-ranked Germany has only 19%. (Decrypt)