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- Fox Journalist unravels the connection between Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Prometheum.
- Ethereum and Prometheum seem to be favored by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been the center of discussion lately following reports that former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) director William Hinman had contacted him before addressing ETH as a non-security asset in his 2018 speech. Interestingly, FOX Journalist Terrett has in a report unraveled the connection between Buterin and Prometheum.
Over the years, Prometheum co-CEO Aaron Kaplan has agreed with the enforcement actions of the SEC against crypto firms. It can be recalled that Kaplan recently predicted a win for the Commission in the lawsuit against Ripple. In fact, it is suspected that there is a close relationship between Prometheum and SEC after the company got approval for the first-ever Special Purpose Broker-Dealer (SPBD) for digital asset securities despite SEC’s strict enforcement action.
The bottom line is that both Buterin and Kaplan allegedly have some relationship with SEC, so getting involved with Prometheum is said to be a big deal.
The Inside Story
The Fox journalist has discovered that Buterin is a co-founder of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, a non-profit research institute backed by Wanxiang Holdings. According to the report, Wanxiang Holdings has a major stake in Prometheum and exists as one of the owners of the company.
Terrett wrote:
Ethereum co-founder @VitalikButerin is listed as a co-founder of @WXblockchain, a part owner of @PrometheumInc which was recently given rights to operate a #crypto exchange in the U.S. Other filings show Buterin is also Chief Scientist at Wanxiang Blockchain Labs.
Both Buterin and Dr. Feng Xiao are said to be co-founders of Wanxiang Blockchain Labs. Interestingly, Dr. Xiao is part of the earliest sponsors of Ethereum. In April 2015, Dr. Xiao proposed a $500,000 donation for Ethereum in support of its mainnet launch.
More Interesting Revelation Concerning the Ethereum Co-founder and Prometheum
Another interesting discovery is that HashKey, a partner of Wanxiang, purchased 68.8 million Prometheum shares and others for $12 million in 2018 as captured in an SEC filing. In addition, HashKey was part of a negotiation to purchase a 10 percent stake in Prometheum for $12.5 million. Dr. Xiao is said to be the Chairman of HashKey and became a member of Prometheum’s board of directors.
SEC Chairperson Gary Gensler has refused to categorize ETH as security despite putting all Proof of Stake assets as securities. Previously, a section of the crypto community speculated that the SEC protects Ethereum and Promethium, and the possibility of both being connected to Buterin makes it more interesting.
This report also brings back the allegations that emerged two years ago that Ethereum was susceptible to Chinese control following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple. However, Buterin replied labeling XRP as “Shitcoin”.
Looks like the Ripple/XRP team is sinking to new levels of strangeness. They’re claiming that their shitcoin should not be called a security for *public policy reasons*, namely because Bitcoin and Ethereum are Chinese-controlled.
There were other speculations that Ethereum and SEC partnered to attack Ripple to squash any potential competition. However, this was dismissed by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson who labeled this as a conspiracy theory.
