SEC Claims All of Ethereum Falls Under US Jurisdiction

The SEC filed a federal lawsuit Monday against crypto influencer Ian Balina for his failure to register a cryptocurrency as a security before launching a 2018 initial coin offering (ICO). In a bold and potentially unprecedented move buried in the lawsuit’s 69th paragraph, the SEC claimed it had the right to sue Balina not only because his case concerns transactions made in the United States, but also because, essentially, the entire Ethereum network falls under the US government’s purview. Currently, 45.85% of all Ethereum nodes operate from the United States, according to Etherscan. The second-greatest density of nodes is in Germany, with only 19%, by comparison.