Hodl Law sued the SEC in 2022, claiming it could face the regulator’s ire for using Ethereum and wanted a court to force it to decide if ETH is a security.
A United States appeals court has backed a California federal judge’s decision to throw out a crypto-focused law firm’s pre-emptive lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission — an attempt to force the regulator to clarify its classification of Ether.
Hodl Law’s November 2022 complaint against the regulator in a San Diego district court failed to show “a realistic danger” of it facing SEC enforcement action for breaking securities laws just because it used the Ethereum blockchain and its token Ether (ETH), a Ninth Circuit appeals court panel said on Aug. 22.
“Hodl Law’s complaint contains no allegations that the SEC has investigated, prosecuted, or threatened to investigate or prosecute the law firm’s use of Ether or Ethereum,” the three-judge panel wrote in an unpublished opinion.
