The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has asserted that Ethereum transactions took place in the United States because ETH nodes are “clustered more densely” in the country compared to any other nation. The SEC lawsuit was filed on September 19 against crypto scientist and YouTuber Ian Balina, which claimed, among other issues, that Balina offered Sparkster (SPRK) tokens without registering them when he established an investment group on Telegram in 2018. The Ethereum contributions were verified when U.S.-based investors joined Balina’s investment pool through a system of Ethereum blockchain nodes, according to the SEC, which is packed more densely in the United States than in any other nation. Validity of SEC Lawsuit The validity of such a lawsuit in court and the existence of any guiding legal precedent is currently unclear. However, according to Ethernodes, 42.56% of the 7807 Ethereum nodes are now in the United States. According to Dr. Aaron Lane, an Australian lawyer and Senior Research Fellow at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, the distribution of Ethereum nodes is mainly irrelevant to the present case. While acknowledging the merits of the SEC’s allegation, Lane emphasized that, even if Balina’s attorneys accept the jurisdictional issue, it will not, at least for the time being, have any effect on current or future proceedings: “The defense may concede jurisdiction here, and if they do it won’t be an issue, and if ...
