This Week on Crypto Twitter: Gary Gensler May Want Ethereum Under SEC Control, Tonga to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

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Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

Broadly speaking, markets recovered this week despite extremely volatile midweek price movements from the leading cryptocurrencies. Over on Twitter, pundits were absorbed by Ethereum Merge updates, more crypto winter stories, and the latest saga in Gary Genslers unspoken war on Ethereum.

Terra CEO Do Kwon kicked the week off with a bang when he lashed out at self-proclaimed blockchain gumshoe @FatManTerra. Back in May, at the height of Terras collapse, FatMan, who claims to be affiliated with Terras Research Forum, accused Kwon of skimming off the top by cashing out hundreds of millions of dollars directly out of the LUNA market cap over several years to pay Terras employee salaries and operating expenses.

What was FatMans offending tweet? Nothing to do with Do Kwon! FatMan tweeted that he was offering a leftover allocation for a carry trade on Bitcoin to victims of USTs collapse. This time, Do Kwon was the one calling FatMan a fraud.

Kwon held his ground when one tweeter implied he was a hypocrite.

I am an optimist at heart, but even I cant remain open minded about a leftover allocation for a carry trade on bitcoin

Do Kwon (@stablekwon) September 5, 2022

On Tuesday, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin gave an update about the networks long-expected overhaul to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. The second iteration of Ethereum is expected to address several key issues, including energy consumption, scalability, gas fees and speed. There was little to update us on, however Everything is going to plan.

The merge is still expected to happen around Sep 13-15. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important though – make sure to update your customers!

vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 6, 2022

That same day, a solo Bitcoin miner won a six-digit block reward.

On Wednesday, a former MP for the tiny Polynesian state of Tonga, Mataiuluai Fonuamotu (aka Lord Fusitua), tweeted that his country is scheduled to make Bitcoin legal tender next month. Lord Fusitua is a self-proclaimed Bitcoin bull and is known for keeping the world informed on the progress of Bitcoin adoption in Tonga.

Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of crypto exchange Bitfinex, praised El Salvador on the anniversary of Bitcoin becoming legal tender there. In his thread Ardoino liked the move to the Italian renaissance. Ardoino makes a great hype man for El Salvador, but a recent report by an American NPO says that Bitcoin use in the country has been minimal since the law came into effect.

El Salvador #bitcoin law 1st anniversary

1/El Salvador has been extremely brave in adding Bitcoin as legal tender.

Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) September 7, 2022

Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at crypto policy think tank Coin Center, said on Wednesday that the United States government, the UN, and various other organizations, are free to use crypto privacy mixer Tornado Cash, despite the fact that the service has been blacklisted by the US Treasury Department. One rule for them, eh?

NFT fan Cirrus poked fun at crypto influencers with a chart from Dune Analytics showing daily ETH trading volumes on NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Finally, Vermont regulators dropped the bombshell this week that bankrupt crypto lender Celsius has been insolvent since 2019. Crypto podcaster Cas Piancey exhumed a tweet from 2019 to show everyone he knew all along.

Gensler vs. Ethereum

It was a piece of news that ostensibly did not seem to be that significant: US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler backs giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Bitcoin oversight.

Gensler has said in the past that Bitcoin is not a security, and thus does not fall under his jurisdiction. This week, Gensler reiterated his stance both on Bitcoin and the CFTC being the prime regulator over cryptoa proposal welcomed by many, both in Washington and the industrywhile hinting that he hopes the SEC will enjoy considerable jurisdiction over crypto.

Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky took to Twitter after the news broke and pointed to what Gensler is not saying to argue that the SEC chief still has Ethereum lined up in his crosshairs.

For context, there have been rumors for a while that Chair Gensler’s SEC would love to walk away from its June 2018 guidance saying ETH isn’t a security, but they haven’t found a credible way to do that yet. (There isn’t one.) I don’t read this article as him giving even an inch.

Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) September 8, 2022

Bitcoin-loving MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor read the news as bullish.

This morning, @GaryGensler, Chair of the SEC, noted that with the exception of #Bitcoin, which he analogizes to digital gold, the vast majority of crypto tokens are securities.

Michael Saylor (@saylor) September 8, 2022

The next day, an SEC filing revealed that MicroStrategy will sell up to $500 million in Class A stock. Guess what it may spend the proceeds on? Thats right, adding to its 129,000 BTC war chest; the single biggest corporate bitcoin treasury in the world.

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