Jeffrey Wilcke, the co-founder and developer of Ethereum, denied his connection with a complaint submitted to the SEC in regard to Grayscale’s newly launched Ethereum Classic Investment Trust.
As reported by Cointelegraph on April 27, Ethereum Classic Trust, officially completed its highly anticipated launch. Developed by Grayscale, a subsidiary company of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, Ethereum Classic Trust enables conventional and high profile investors in the public market to invest in Ethereum Classic via a strictly regulated channel.
According to Grayscale, management fees obtained by the company for securing and holding Ethereum Classic for investors will be donated to Ethereum Classic for development, marketing and community activities.
On March 31, Grayscale announced:
“Ethereum Trust management fee will be donated to Ethereum Classic development, marketing and community activities for three years.”
As noted by Grayscale, the operators of Ethereum Classic Trust collect an annual fee of three percent, which includes one percent of development contribution. The three percent fee charged by Grayscale will be allocated to the development of Ethereum Classic over the next three years.
In a statement, the Ethereum Classic marketing team which operates various social media accounts including the Twitter account @eth_classic, explained that Ethereum co-founder Jeffrey Wilcke submitted an official complaint to the US Securities Commission Exchange (SEC) in regard to the recently introduced Ethereum Classic Trust.
The alleged complaint of Wilcke noted that Ethereum Classic is not a legitimate cryptocurrency and a Blockchain project. However, Wilcke later clarified that he did not submit such a complaint and told the community as well as the Ethereum Classic team that he filed a request for name removal. He further emphasized that the complaint was filed under the name “Jeffrey Wilcke” without his consent.
Wilcke wrote:
“I am Jeffrey Wilcke and I am writing on behalf of myself and the Ethereum Foundation to disclaim a comment submitted under my name and affiliation on Feb. 8, 2017, regarding File No. SR-NYSEArca-2017-06 (the “Comment”). I did not submit the Comment and there is no other Jeffrey Wilcke affiliated with the Ethereum Foundation. The Comment was submitted using my name and affiliation without my knowledge or consent and in my view, appears to be a case of identity theft that has caused harm and embarrassment and continues to publicly do so. I categorically disclaim any statements in that Comment as attributable to me and I kindly ask the SEC to remove my name and affiliation from the false Comment immediately to help stop any further misunderstandings.”
Upon the clarification and filing of removal, the Ethereum Classic team told its community:“Ethereum developer Jeffrey Wilcke made it clear he did not write that comment to SEC and has requested its removal.”