Solana, others caught in SEC crackdown ‘don’t deserve it,’ Buterin says

A little less a month after Binance and Coinbase were sued, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin defends rival chains that have been targeted

article-image

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin | Alexey Smyshlyaev/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has finally weighed in on the US approach to crypto regulation.

Buterin shared his thoughts on the matter early Friday morning through a Twitter ask me anything (AMA). Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang asked him, “How are you feeling about the US policy approach to crypto?”

Buterin responded with sympathy for his blockchain counterparts that are in US regulators’ crosshairs, naming Solana in particular. He seemingly also acknowledged Ethereum’s somewhat privileged position.

“The one comment I’ll make is that I feel bad that @solana and other projects are getting hit in this way. They don’t deserve it, and if ethereum ends up ‘winning’ through all other blockchains getting kicked off exchanges, that’s not an honorable way to win, and in the long term probably isn’t even a victory,” Buterin tweeted.

He said he doesn’t consider other chains, such as Solana, to be the real competition. The true threat, he said, is “the rapidly expanding centralized world that is imposing itself on us.”

Loading Tweet..

Solana (SOL) was deemed a security in the SEC suits against both Binance and Coinbase. And so were cardano (ADA), Polygon’s token MATIC, filecoin (FIL), the Sandbox’s SAND, and Axie Infinity (AXS).

Ether went untouched in the SEC’s crackdown, and even for casual observers, this wasn’t surprising.

When SEC Chair Gary Gensler testified before the House Financial Services Committee in April, he refused to give a definite answer on whether ether was a security or a commodity.

And a little over a month before Gensler’s congressional appearance, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam was a bit clearer on where ether stood, since his agency has already allowed the trading of ether futures products.

“I’ve made the argument that ether is a commodity,” Behnam told senators in March. “It’s been listed on CFTC exchanges for quite some time.”

He continued, “We would not have allowed the product – in this case the ether futures product – to be listed on a CFTC exchange if we did not feel strongly that it was a commodity asset because we have litigation risk.”

The first regulator to claim ether is a security was New York Attorney General Letitia James, though her view hasn’t gained much traction.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, has emerged as a leader in onchain RWAs, with ~$17.5B publicly tokenized. The platform’s ecosystem volume is growing ~40% YoY as it expands beyond HELOCs into student loans, DSCR loans, unsecured loans, bankruptcy claims, and more. Operationally, Figure cuts average loan production cost by ~93% and compresses median funding time from ~42 days to ~10, creating a durable speed-and-cost advantage.

article-image

The Ethereum co-founder suggested LINEA holders would be eligible for other airdrops in cryptic tweet

article-image

The layer-2’s biggest release yet brings benefits — but a post-upgrade outage caused a chain reorg

article-image

Crypto is shifting into risk-on mode — pump.fun dominates meme activity, while Lido leans on treasury maneuvers

article-image

If the president breaks the Fed, he’ll own the budget problems

article-image

Combining Franklin Templeton’s tokenization expertise with Binance’s trading infrastructure could speed crypto adoption, companies say

article-image

The firm’s upcoming filing comes as competition heats up over the USDH stablecoin