Ethereum co-founder challenged by CryptoLaw after admitting the company holds “a significant treasury of ETH”
CryptoLaw, a site dedicated to US legal and regulatory developments for crypto-assets, publicly challenged Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, after admitting that the company maintains “significant treasury of ETH”.
This comes after ConsenSys, an Ethereum blockchain software company also founded by Lubin, announced it had successfully raised $450 million USD in its latest financing round. This so-called “Series D” fundraiser was spearheaded by ParaFi Capital, an investment firm that focuses on “decentralized finance markets.”
Lubin was sharing the news in a Twitter thread about the fundraising success but, after facing backlash from other users, restricted comments. Many users wondered how Ethereum’s decentralization philosophy could be reconciled with the company itself holding large reserves of ETH. In particular, news about Ethereum’s stock of its own cryptocurrency prompted a response from CryptoLaw, which has long commented on Ethereum’s supposed “free admission” of the SEC. CryptoLaw directly compared Ethereum’s supposed “love deal” with the SEC to the Ripple trialwhich has been mired in controversy.
ConsenSys is a direct competitor of Ripple with both developing cross-border payments systems for Ethereum. CryptoLaw claims, with reference to papers filed in court, that multiple questionable meetings between ConsenSys and SEC officials took place to lobby for a “free pass” and redirect SEC attention to its competitor. As a result of the SEC lawsuit, Ripple XRP lost $15 billion in market capitalization.
A Twitter user speculated that the SEC lawsuit was deliberately extended to give ConsenSys time to develop a viable competitor for XRP.
