In a fiery Twitter battle that unfolded over the weekend, Jack Dorsey, a prominent Bitcoin advocate, and co-founder of Twitter, found himself entangled in a heated exchange with several crypto industry pundits. The exchange began when Dorsey responded affirmatively with a simple “yes” to a question asking if Ethereum (ETH) was security, prompting a strong reaction from the community.
Among those who took offense was Udi Wertheimer, a Bitcoin Ordinals developer at Taproot Wizards, who referred to Dorsey as a “clown” in a tweet on June 6. Dorsey swiftly fired back, tweeting, “ETH is not a security? Teach me, wizard.” This prompted Wertheimer to share a five-year-old video of Gary Gensler, the Chair of the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), stating that Ethereum was now “sufficiently decentralized” and no longer classified as a security.
However, Gabor Gurbacs, a strategy adviser to Tether and VanEck, injected his opinion into the discussion, suggesting that Ethereum’s recent transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism may have potentially re-triggered securities laws.
The heated online scuffle gains significance against the backdrop of recent developments in the cryptocurrency space. On June 5 and 6, the SEC filed lawsuits against major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase, accusing them of offering tokens that were deemed unregistered securities. Dorsey, in response, shared a screenshot of a 2015 post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, where Armstrong referred to altcoins as a “distraction” and emphasized the importance of focusing on Bitcoin. Dorsey endorsed the sentiment expressed in the post.
Continuing his support for Bitcoin, Dorsey retweeted a video of Jack Mallers, CEO of Bitcoin Lightning application Strike, publicly criticizing Armstrong for prioritizing altcoins over building on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Notably, when Dorsey was leading Twitter in 2021, the company sold 140 Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but Dorsey declined to invest in Ether then.
Dorsey’s recent comments and actions downplay Ethereum’s potential. In August 2021, he expressed skepticism, stating that Ethereum alone could not disrupt big tech. However, Dorsey has since backed and provided funding for Nostr, a decentralized network aiming to rival Twitter, which integrates Bitcoin Lightning-based payments on its “Damus” platform.
The debate over Ethereum’s classification as security remains contentious, with prominent figures in the crypto industry expressing differing views. As the conversation intensifies, it is clear that the debate surrounding Ethereum’s status will continue to capture attention and shape the discourse within the cryptocurrency community.
