Ethereum could experience a major upswing under Donald Trump’s incoming administration, according to ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin. At the ongoing Devcon 2024 conference in Thailand (12–15 November 2024), Lubin shared his views on how a shift in U.S. regulatory focus could benefit the leading smart contract-enabled blockchain, especially in light of a likely transition in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) leadership.
Lubin highlighted that Trump’s recent win in the U.S. presidential election could be particularly favorable for Ethereum and its native token, Ether (ETH), which he believes has been under pressure from the Gary Gensler-led SEC.
Read also: U.S SEC drops investigation on Ether: What It Means for Ethereum’s future
According to him, the SEC’s enforcement measures have targeted Ethereum and its ecosystem disproportionately. “America has had its boot on the neck of Ethereum for a pretty long time, specifically Ethereum, and that’s caused a bunch of FUD,” Lubin said in a Cointelegraph report. This, in some ways, impacted the ETH price negatively, keeping it below $3,000 for several months since June 2024.
However, since Trump’s election victory on 5 November 2024, Ether has surged by over 23%, alongside other major cryptoassets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), XRP and Binance Coin (BNB). This performance underscores investor confidence in a potential regulatory shift that could ease SEC clampdown on Ethereum and the crypto industry.
Notably, in the past 30 days, ETH, BTC, SOL and BNB have gained by roughly 20%, 46%, 47% and 4%, respectively, at the time of writing. Citing the impressive performance of ETH in the crypto market in the past weeks, Lubin believes Ethereum is “poised to benefit more than other protocols” due to its maturity and significant development in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and smart contract sectors.
“We’ve already seen a rebound that has been more favourable to Ether […] So Ethereum is poised to benefit more than, I think, other protocols, especially since it’s just a lot bigger and more mature than all the other ecosystems other than Bitcoin, which is mature but narrow in its purview,” he commented.
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Lubin speaks on SEC leadership transition ahead of Trump’s inauguration
With Trump set to assume office in January 2025, market participants are eyeing the leadership changes within the SEC as earlier hinted by the US president-elect during his campaign. Lubin, who has been openly critical of the SEC, believes these changes could support a more favourable regulatory environment for Ethereum. .
Read also: Ethereum sees inflationary pressure for the first time in over two years.
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He anticipates Gensler’s resignation upon Trump’s inauguration, which he hopes will bring fresh perspectives to the commission. Also, Lubin expressed support for SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda to serve as interim chair, signalling optimism that Uyeda could introduce a more balanced approach to regulating Ethereum and other crypto assets.
“Hopefully, they won’t try to jam up a lot of people and companies before they exit,” Lubin said, hoping the current SEC leadership will transition smoothly and “gracefully” without aggressive regulatory measures.
It bears mentioning that the U.S SEC launched an investigation in March 2023 to determine whether ETH is a security. Following this action from the SEC to regulate ETH, Consensys filed a lawsuit against the agency in April 2024. As earlier reported by CAB, this culminated in the SEC dropping its investigation into ETH in June 2024. Regardless, the SEC stated that Ethereum is not exonerated and action may still be taken based on the investigation concluded.
ETH is trading above $3,100 at the time of writing, showing bullish momentum.
Read also: Ether hits $3,300, tops Bank of America market cap
Ndianabasi Tom A Petroleum Engineering degree holder, Ndianabasi’s interest since 2018 has been studying the ever-growing field of blockchain and cryptocurrency, keenly evaluating the innovation, exploration, and expansion of this field locally and globally. The founder of Nitadel a media platform, Ndianabasi has been a Writer at Crypto Asset Buyer (CAB) since 2021. When he is not drilling resources in the blockchain and cryptocurrency field, Ndianabasi is singing, reading, watching crime movies, or playing football.
