A group of community members has joined forces to create an unconventional cryptocurrency called NotWifGary (NWG). This decentralized memecoin project takes a firm stand against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) while supporting Ethereum. The motivation behind this initiative stems from the regulator’s increased scrutiny of the crypto industry.
While some NWG members have experience in the zkEVM ecosystem Linea, Marco Monaco, an NWG member, clarified that this project is entirely independent and unrelated to Linea or ConsenSys. Monaco, along with 11 other individuals, is responsible for bringing this project to life due to the “regulatory uncertainty” that is negatively impacting Ethereum.
The official NWG project was announced on X on May 15 by Marco Monaco himself. The post stated that the project’s objective is to “defend ourselves against Gary Gensler and the SEC, who are unjustly attacking Ethereum and open-source developers, posing a threat to digital assets.” NWG further explained that its memecoin will be launched on Linea as an ERC-20 token, utilizing a multisig wallet involving Original Project Supporters.
It is important to note that the NWG project is not yet operational. The team plans to bootstrap its liquidity pool (LP) through community donations to ensure that the token’s launch is fair and sufficiently decentralized. This approach aligns with NWG’s commitment to counter the SEC’s actions and support a decentralized ecosystem.
The SEC has recently taken regulatory measures against prominent companies in the crypto industry. For instance, on May 4, the SEC issued a Wells notice to Robinhood, a well-known company, while Exodus’ listing on the New York Stock Exchange was delayed on May 10 due to SEC-related concerns.
In response to these developments, Democratic Party Representative Wiley Nickel criticized the SEC on May 15, accusing them of turning crypto into a “political football.” Nickel argued that the SEC’s actions were unnecessary and were putting President Joe Biden in a position where he had to take sides on the matter. This comment comes in the wake of the proposed Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 rule, which mandates that SEC-reporting entities record custodied crypto as liabilities on their balance sheets.