Uniswap fights back against SEC as the Ethereum crackdown continues
For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been cracking down on the crypto sector writ large, but in the last few months, the agency appears to have trained its sights on Ethereum, in particular. Some of the biggest names in decentralized finance are now fighting back.
In a 40-page filing on Tuesday, Uniswap Labs — which builds decentralized finance infrastructure including a popular DeFi crypto exchange that enables users to custody their own coins — details to the SEC all the reasons why the agency shouldn’t pursue legal action against them. It comes a few weeks after the commission issued Uniswap a Wells notice, warning the company that it identified potential violations of U.S. securities law.
“The SEC’s entire case rests on the false assumption that all tokens are securities. Tokens are in fact, simply a file format for value,” said Uniswap’s chief legal officer Marvin Ammori.
“The SEC has to essentially unilaterally change the definitions of exchange, broker, and investment contract in order to try to capture what we do,“ continued Ammori.
A Wells notice is typically one of the final steps before the SEC formally issues charges. It generally lays out the framework of the regulatory argument and offers the potentially accused an opportunity to rebut the SEC’s claims.
So far this year, the federal regulator has sent Wells notices, filed lawsuits, or reached settlements with a host of crypto firms, and the agency’s legal challenges are increasingly focused on ethereum and players working in decentralized finance, including ShapeShift, TradeStation, Uniswap and Consensys. It also comes as the agency is reportedly investigating the Ethereum Foundation.
CNBC reached out to the SEC about the recent batch of Wells notices sent out to crypto firms, and an agency spokesperson declined to comment.
In April, Consensys tried to preempt the SEC’s action with its own lawsuit, alleging regulatory overreach on the part of the regulator. The 10-year-old crypto firm said its suit followed three subpoenas issued last year, plus a Wells notice from the SEC that claimed the company was violating federal securities laws.
“This action is about the almost certainty that we hold that the SEC is trying to slow or kill ethereum, decentralization, disintermediation, and disintermediated technology in the U.S. and probably wouldn’t stop there with its long arm,” said long-time ethereum veteran Joseph Lubin, who went from co-founding the blockchain to launching and running Consensys.
“It might influence other nation states to do similarly draconian things,” continued Lubin.
Security vs. commodity
The recent spate of actions targeting major names working in the Ethereum ecosystem come ahead of a long-awaited decision on whether the regulator will approve or deny applications to launch spot ether exchange-traded funds.
To date, the agency’s stance on ether’s classification as either a commodity or a security remains uncertain.
“We think big banks like the way things are organized. We think certain factions of the U.S. government like the way they operate,” said Lubin. “Without explicitly stating their intentions, without public discussion and clear rule-making, the SEC seems to have decided to reclassify ether as a security without being able to utter that that’s what they’re doing.”
The industry argues if ether — the native token of the Ethereum blockchain — gets classified as a security, it could throw the future of the Ethereum network and many adjacent crypto firms into question. Exchanges, both centralized and decentralized, would be forced to choose between registering with the SEC, or delisting ether altogether.
“If the SEC, in fact, does take the position that Ethereum is a security, pretty much everyone in this business that is using or providing services of the Ethereum blockchain, they’re going to be on notice that they might need to be registered,” said digital assets attorney Christopher Gerold, who previously served as the chief of the New Jersey Bureau of Securities.
“Whatever protections they thought they had before are no longer going to be there, and we’re going to see a shift in the industry,” continued Gerold.
The head of litigation and investigations at Consensys told CNBC that they’ve been alarmed that the SEC has been targeting developers.
“They asked for a list of the names of any Consensys developers who contributed any coding to the merge,” said Laura Brookover.
The so-called merge was a years-in-the-making systemwide upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that took effect in September 2022 and changed the way transactions are verified. The proof-of-stake model, which replaced the proof-of-work model, requires volunteers on the network to put up their ether tokens, or “stake” them, in order to secure the network.
Brookover says the agency has explicitly asked for the identities of public and private Consensys software developer code repositories.
“Those are very strange requests from a financial regulator,” continued Brookover. “I can speak to that, because I used to be in the CFTC’s enforcement division and investigated cases myself.”
Multiple coders and industry executives have told CNBC that it is possible the SEC could be taking more of an interest in Ethereum, because the regulator thinks its native token functions more like a security after the merge.
Brookover told CNBC that their suit asks the court to declare both that ether is not a security and that the SEC lacks jurisdiction to investigate Ethereum. Ultimately, the regulator will have to respond to the Consensys complaint in a legal filing.
“They’re going to be hard pressed not to stay in their answer whether they think Ethereum is a security or not,” said Gerold, adding that he suspects that the agency will take the position that it is a security because of the proof-of-stake change that took effect two years ago.
One thing the SEC has been clear on is its classification of bitcoin as a commodity. With ether, the narrative has changed.
In 2018, when Bill Hinman was still the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance, he told CNBC that, “When we look at bitcoin or if we look at ether and the highly decentralized nature of the networks, we don’t see a third-party promoter where applying the disclosure regime would make a lot of sense.”
“So we’re comfortable…viewing these as items that don’t have to be regulated as securities,” continued Hinman.
In April 2023, when Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) asked SEC Chair Gary Gensler whether ether was a commodity or a security, Gensler demurred.
SEC vs. crypto
Gensler has, in multiple interviews, repeatedly shared that he believes much of the industry already belongs under its jurisdiction, and its lawsuits are simply bringing the industry under compliance. Crypto firms argue that the recent legal battles haven’t given the regulatory clarity the industry has been seeking for years.
With the Uniswap Wells notice, for example, a source at the company told CNBC that dealing with the SEC was akin to “talking to a wall.”
For two years preceding the Wells notice, Uniswap described the protracted interactions with the agency as an opaque process that involved responding to multiple requests, including giving testimony and sending several documents to the agency, without getting much feedback about the regulator’s concerns around potential wrongdoing. This source also told CNBC they had not heard from the regulator at all in 2024 until the agency told them in a half-hour phone call that they would be receiving a formal notice.
Both Consensys and Uniswap suggest the SEC’s broad approach to classifying securities may be outdated.
“The SEC is arguing that the Uniswap protocol is an unregistered securities exchange, and that the Uniswap interface and wallet are both unregistered broker brokers,” Ammori said.
But Uniswap argues that the protocol itself is a general purpose computer program that anyone can use and integrate.
“So the protocol is not an exchange also, because under the law, it would have to be specifically designed for securities trading, and it is not,” continued Ammori.
Uniswap argues in its response to the SEC that the majority of its trading volume is obvious non-securities, like ether, bitcoin, and stablecoins.
“It’s not run by a group, as the definition requires, but as autonomous software no person or group controls,” added Ammori.
“The SEC knows that the current definition of exchange does not cover the protocol, or anything we do. That’s why as we speak, there’s a pending rulemaking, for the SEC is trying to redefine about a half dozen words in their own regulations to try to capture us,” contined Uniswap’s chief legal officer.
Alma Angotti, partner and global legislative and regulatory risk leader at the consulting firm Guidehouse, cautions that it is less clear whether decentralized exchanges function like an alternative trading system, or a market maker — or whether they really are just a technology that does not act as a broker dealer.
Meanwhile, as the SEC ramps up its focus on decentralized players in the crypto ecosystem, centralized players also remain under scrutiny by the regulator.
In May, investment platform Robinhood announced it received a Wells notice for the company’s crypto operations. The SEC has also sued Coinbase and Binance. With multiple pending legal challenges from the regulator and enduring uncertainty about the future of crypto regulation in the U.S., multiple crypto businesses have said they are considering decamping from the country altogether.
“We’ve got companies that are wasting resources trying to figure out, ‘Am I a broker dealer? Are these assets securities?'” said Binance’s former chief compliance officer, Christina Rea.
“We’re already having a hard enough time trying to get them to be compliant with other important laws — anti-money laundering laws, anti-bribery and corruption laws.”
On Thursday, the commission will issue a decision on whether to approve one of the spot ether ETF applications after a multi-month delay. Many are waiting to see whether the regulator will offer clarity on its stance on ether.
— CNBC’s Jordan Smith contributed to this report.
Tesla has reportedly yet to start testing its robotaxi service in Austin without a safety driver behind the wheel – just weeks before the planned launch.
For months now, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been hyping the launch of “Tesla Robotaxi”, a Uber-like ride-hailing service powered by autonomous Tesla vehicles, starting with a launch in Austin, Texas in June.
We have extensively reported that this launch is disappointing compared to what Tesla promised for years: that all its consumer vehicles built since 2016 are capable of self-driving.
Instead, Tesla plans to build an internal fleet of “10-20” Model Ys and have them offer ride-hailing services in a geo-fenced area around Austin, Texas, helped by human teleoperations. This is very similar to what Waymo has been offering in other cities for years, specifically in Austin, for months now.
Even with the significant downgrade in self-driving capabilities promised with this project, there are many doubts about Tesla’s ability to achieve the lesser goal.
That’s because the robotaxi service will be based on Tesla’s ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ program, which is currently achieving about 500 miles between critical disengagements fleet-wide, according to the latest crowdsourced data.
Tesla will be able to improve on that by optimizing a version for the geo-fenced area in Austin and it has been training its neural nets for that for months with vehicles going around Austin.
However, a new report now claims that Tesla has yet to start testing its service without safety drivers at the wheel – similar to Tesla’s public ‘Supervised FSD’. The Information wrote in a new report:
Elon Musk’s deadline for launching Tesla’s first robotaxi service, in Austin, Texas, is weeks away, but the company hadn’t started testing its cars without a human safety driver as of last month, according to an engineer close to the testing and a former employee. That’s a crucial step required before Tesla can launch the pilot service for customers.
For comparison, before launching its paid ride service in Austin, Waymo tested its vehicles with safety drivers in the area for 6 months and then without safety drivers for another 6 months.
Waymo has now taken over a significant market share of ride-hailing rides in the Texas capital, but it still has limitations; for example, it doesn’t drive on the interstate.
The report also mentions that Tesla has been working with local emergency services in Austin to develop intervention plans in order to avoid causing issues if its autonomous vehicles fail.
Electrek’s Take
This is the biggest softball goal. It’s a fraction of what was promised, it’s something that others have achieved before. It’s a punt created for Tesla to finally get a “win” in self-driving.
If they can’t even make it, it would be disastrous, but at least, I hope that it will finally open the eyes of many Tesla shareholders to the reality that Tesla is actually behind in autonomous driving and that Musk’s latest claims that Tesla will have “millions of robotaxi on the road” in 2026 are just the same as when he claimed it would happen in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019: corporate puffery.
My main concern now is for public safety. I have little hope of US regulators being able to stop Tesla considering Trump is firing anyone who got in Musk’s way after he gave him over $250 million.
If Tesla brings its cowboy approach to this, it could get bad quickly.
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The development of Rivian’s R2 validation builds continues to progress. We know so because the American automaker’s founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, continues to pepper us with welcome updates with plenty of fantastic images. The latest post features the inner workings of Rivian’s Maximus drive unit, which will propel the upcoming R2 EVs when they hit the market next year.
Another day, another exciting social media update from RJ Scaringe. Nine days ago, the Rivian CEO shared a peek at the company’s new Maximus drive unit, designed to be more compact and efficiently built to help reduce cost-per-unit production.
Our only look was from outside the drive unit’s casing at the time, but it was exciting news nonetheless. As an encore, Scaringe posted photos of the R2 validation builds on a pilot line at the automaker’s facility in Normal, Illinois.
This evening, Scaringe took to Instagram and X once again to share a better look at the inner workings of the Rivian Maximus drive unit. Check it out:
RJ shares more images of Rivian’s Maximus development
Rivian’s CEO posted the three images above, which showcase some interesting perspectives of the developing drive unit. As previously shared by Rivian, Maximus uses a new continuous winding technique that reduces the total welds per stator and thus the total overall cost of building each one.
For comparison, Rivian’s current Enduro drive unit requires 264 stator welds, while Maximus only needs 24. You can see the stator windings in the image above to the left. Scaringe shared excitement in the progress of the Rivian team’s Maximus drive unit as well as some insight in his post:
I love the packaging on Maximus — the drive unit for R2. It has a side mounted inverter that utilizes flat area at the end of the motor to minimize the length of bus bars, keeping them light and efficient. The large planar shape also allows all processing and power electronics to exist on a single printed circuit board.
The inverter chassis closes out the oil cooled motor cavity and seamlessly routes coolant from the power modules to the drive unit’s heat exchanger with no extra parts.
Overall, the inverter part count is reduced by 41% relative to Enduro and structural inverter lid saves more parts and fasteners by also serving as the drive unit mount. I love this design efficiency. (heart emoji)
Looks fantastic, RJ. We can’t wait to see the visual progress of the R2 you share next!
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On today’s thrilling episode of Quick Charge, we’ve a huge spike in global EV sales and a huge dip in Tesla deliveries. Plus a whole bunch of news from Toyota, including an updated bZ that’s just a bit better than before … but is a bit better going to make a big difference?
We’re also on track for more than 1 in 4 new cars sold this year to be electric, with a whole lot more hybrids coming in to make up the difference and drive fuel demand down to a new yearly low. All this, plus the top 5 cheapest EVs to insure when you hit the play button.
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