Ethereum Founders May Have Misled SEC, Documents Suggest

Recently surfaced documents indicate Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin may have made misleading statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding investor concentration levels.

According to on-chain investigator Mr. Huber, Lubin signed a form affirming he truthfully answered questions from former SEC official William Hinman about the distribution and mining power surrounding ether tokens.

However, Huber claims Lubin likely did not disclose efforts to obscure major Ethereum stakeholders to Hinman, as shown in previous videos. This raises doubts about whether Lubin was forthright about token and mining concentration, despite certifying the information as accurate.

The documents also show Hinman was directly asked whether he reviewed materials referencing concentration levels involving Ethereum. This heightens scrutiny over what both men knew about the matter.

Allegations and speculations revolving around Ethereum and the SEC have been rising lately. A recent series of posts on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by Steven Nerayoff, an advisor to Ethereum, has raised questions about potential legal concerns related to Ethereum’s early history.

In these posts, Nerayoff made vague allegations about Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin being involved in regulatory violations during the project’s initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014.

Nerayoff’s posts also alluded to the existence of an undisclosed “piece of paper” that Joseph Lubin claims provided legal authorization for Ethereum’s ICO, which successfully raised over $18 million.

While the precise contents of this document have not been revealed, legal expert Bill Morgan has speculated that it might be a “no-action” letter from the SEC, potentially exempting Ethereum from certain securities regulations.