- Dorsey supported a 2015 suggestion that Coinbase should focus on Bitcoin.
- Twitter boss Elon Musk also chipped in to support Dogecoin.
Twitter founder and long-term Bitcoin advocate Jack Dorsey claimed on Twitter that Ethereum [ETH] is a security and his comments have created a furore. Dorsey responded with “yes” to a question asking if ETH is a security.
Udi Wertheimer, a Bitcoin Ordinals developer working at Taproot Wizards, called Dorsey a “clown” on the social media platform.
When Dorsey retorted, “ETH is not a security? Teach me wizard,” Wertheimer shared a 5-year-old video of the U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler saying that ETH was now “sufficiently decentralized” and hence not a security.
Gabor Gurbacs, strategy adviser to stablecoin issuer Tether, weighed in on Wertheimer’s remark, speculating that Ethereum’s recent switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism may have re-triggered securities laws.
Dorsey also supported a post from 2015 in which Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong referred to altcoins as a “distraction” and suggested that Coinbase should instead focus on Bitcoin.
Current Twitter boss Elon Musk also chipped in, adding that Coinbase should focus on Dogecoin as well, in addition to Bitcoin.
“Doge ftw,” Musk tweeted on 6 June. It is well-known that the memecoin is the favourite cryptocurrency of the Tesla CEO.
Dorsey maintained his pro-Bitcoin stand on Twitter and shared an old video of Jack Mallers, CEO of Bitcoin Lightning application Strike, criticising Armstrong for prioritizing altcoins above BTC and the Lightning Network.
Dorsey was in charge of Twitter in 2021 when it launched 140 ETH-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but he refused to invest in Ethereum then.
SEC’s enforcement action triggers volatile price movement
The online scuffle comes in the wake of SEC’s latest charges against Binance and Coinbase. The regulator charged the exchanges this week for allegedly offering tokens considered to be unregistered securities.
BTC’s price fell by 6.6% to around $25,500 following the SEC enforcement. The King coin was trading above $26,800 at press time after recovery.
ETH’s price fell about 5.4% to around $1,800 following SEC enforcement. It was trading at $1,870 as of this writing.
