Tag: SEC v. Crypto

Democrats Must Seize the Chance to Change Crypto Narrative

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By Al Wynn. (RealClear Policy). September 27, 2024.

In politics, a lot can change in a month. After the first presidential debate, Trump and the Republicans appeared to have significant momentum heading into November. Now, Vice-President Kamala Harris, buttressed by her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, can pave a new path forward for the party. Walz’s selection underscores the Harris campaign’s intention to fight for every state and every constituency. As we inch closer and closer to November, the presidential campaigns need all the wins they can get. Harris would do well to reflect on and court the voters who may feel abandoned by the larger party’s approach to certain industries and issues.

One of the many surprises of this election cycle is the emergence of new power players and the constituencies they represent—namely the cryptocurrency industry. Touting freedom of choice as an important aspect of her platform, that sentiment should extend to financial freedom, and with it, the pursuit of financial innovation. The Democratic National Convention has come and gone without much tangible change in the race. Now is the time for Harris to turn the page on crypto for the Democratic party as it becomes a larger part of all our economic and technological futures.

Read the full piece here: RealClear Policy

SEC’s Chairman Gensler Faces Congressional Grilling Over Crypto Oversight

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Nina Bambysheva. (Forbes). September 24, 2024.

In a highly anticipated Congressional hearing today, U.S. Securities and Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler and his fellow commissioners faced intense scrutiny over the agency’s handling of digital asset regulation.

For the first time since 2019, all five commissioners including Caroline Crenshaw, Hester Peirce, Jaime Lizárraga, and Mark Uyeda testified together before the House Financial Services Committee. The hearing laid bare the growing tension surrounding the SEC’s oversight of cryptocurrencies, which critics argue has become overreaching and legally ambiguous.

Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, wasted no time in setting the tone, calling out Gensler for what he sees as regulatory overreach. “Chair Gensler’s legacy will be defined by turning the once proud institution of the SEC into a rogue agency,” McHenry said, accusing the SEC of enforcing regulations “often without adequate justification, economic analysis, or public engagement.” The SEC’s heavy-handed approach has targeted a broad range of U.S. crypto companies—from exchanges like Coinbase to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like Uniswap and NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Read the full piece here: Forbes.

Ripple Gets OK To Pause SEC Penalty As It Mulls Appeal

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By Aislinn Keely. (Law360). September 4, 2024.

Law360 (September 4, 2024, 9:34 PM EDT) — A New York federal judge on Wednesday signed off on Ripple Labs’ request to hold off on paying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the $125 million penalty it owes to allow time for either side to appeal the landmark ruling in the agency’s registration case.

The blockchain firm asked U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres earlier Wednesday to delay the monetary portion of her Aug. 7 judgment, which directed Ripple to pay the penalty for failing to register institutional sales of its XRP token. Though Ripple was due to pay up on Friday, Judge Torres allowed a stay until either 30 days after the time to appeal expires, or the resolution of any appeal. 

Read more at: Law360

Court Brings Gavel Down on SEC’s War on Crypto

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By Roslyn Layton. (DC Journal). August 20, 2024.

On August 8, Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. Southern District of New York issued her judgment on the case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the blockchain payments company Ripple. 

In her 16-page order, Torres brought the District Court’s gavel down on the SEC’s spectacular failure to expand the administrative state beyond what the law allows. The SEC should read the room and move on.

From the moment the SEC filed its case against Ripple in December 2020, the breadth and audacity of its legal assault on the company and its two senior executives rightly dubbed it the cryptocurrency trial of the century. The SEC argued that the XRP token, a digital commodity by any definition, was a security and that all XRP sales between any two parties are investment contracts with Ripple in perpetuity.

Read the full piece here: DC Journal.

Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

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By Daniel Conway. (Real Clear Markets). August 8, 2024.


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Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

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By Daniel Conway

August 08, 2024Crypto Coins of Appreciation and Traffic Management Await

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In 2011, engineers at John Deere were putting bitcoin wallets on tractors and implements (seeders and fertilizers), and every spin of the axel created a message on the controller area network (CAN bus), after which a small amount of bitcoin transferred to the implement’s wallet. The process of creating what was effectively a new payment system horrified the company’s internal accountants, but the fact that bitcoin had no apparent monetary value at the time somewhat assuaged their worries.

By 2016, the automotive standards group SAE (The Society of Automotive Engineers) began standards conversations regarding blockchain, and today most new automobiles have blockchains built in. This created a whole new range of possibilities: Today, a driver coming up behind a car wanting to make a pass can signal his intention by using a turn signal, honking, or getting aggressively close to the car. With blockchain, the cars can automatically execute a smart contract so that the faster vehicle can pay cryptocurrency to the slower vehicle to move aside, creating a cryptocurrency mechanism for virtual fast lanes. Ford holds this patent, incidentally. 

Read full article here: Real Clear Markets.

SEC Intends to Amend Complaint Against Third Party Tokens (Like SOL) in Binance Case

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By Amitoj Singh. (CoinDesk). July 30, 2024.

  • The SEC intends to amend its complaint against Binance, including with respect to the ‘Third Party Crypto Asset Securities,” it said in a court filing.
  • This likely means that the Judge won’t have to decide whether 10 tokens such as Solana and Matic are unregistered securities or not.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be dropping it’s charges against so-called third-party tokens, such as Solana’s SOL and Polygon’s MATIC, which have been part of its case against Binance, according to a court filing early Tuesday morning.

According to the filing, the SEC has already informed the defendants, Binance and affiliated entities (namely Binance.US and founder Changpeng Zhao), that it “intends to seek leave to amend its complaint, including with respect to the ‘Third Party Crypto Asset Securities’… “obviating the need for the Court to issue a ruling as to the sufficiency of the allegations as to those tokens at this time.”

Read full article here: CoinDesk

It’s time to end the SEC’s war on crypto

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By Anthony Scaramucci. (Blockworks). June 6, 2024.

The American government is badly damaged — we need public servants who care more about right or wrong, especially when it comes to the crypto industry.

I’m not denying that there are reasonable questions about how crypto firms should be regulated. Many policy questions still require legislation to resolve. But, our current system is broken.

The Securities and Exchange Commission traditionally does not expose itself and its credibility to an appellate beatdown. But this SEC is different. This SEC and Chair Gary Gensler have an extra-regulatory anti-crypto agenda. And they are using their power to obstruct and delay the industry — imposing their own preferences where they can. 

Gensler may not like bitcoin. But whether you decide to invest in bitcoin is up to you, not the SEC. 

Read the full article here: Blockworks

Why The Securities And Exchange Commission Lost Its War On Crypto

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By Dan Ikenson. (Forbes). May 28, 2024

From banning “non-compete” clauses to re-requiring “net-neutrality” to hyperinflating the costs of taxpayer-funded infrastructure with extravagant union giveaways, the Biden administration has overseen a massive expansion of the regulatory state. But amid this regulatory incontinence, which sows uncertainty, suppresses innovation, and retards investment and growth, there are encouraging signs that Congress, the courts, and US entrepreneurs are fed up with rule by executive fiat.

Take, for example, the escapades of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since assuming power, Biden’s approach to cryptocurrencies and related technologies has been to delegate and defer to an activist SEC and its crusading chairman, Gary Gensler. Chairman Gensler portrays the crypto industries as “rife with hucksters, fraudsters, [and] scam artists,” which, he seems to believe, excuses him from proposing and promulgating concrete rules, in compliance with statute, for the industry to follow. Instead, Gensler sees crypto companies as undeserving of such regulatory clarity, choosing to keep them off balance through a “regulation by enforcement” approach – aggressively suing crypto companies for non-compliance with securities laws without ever articulating what “compliance” requires.

In the absence of clear, legal pathways, companies in the digital asset space have taken their innovations and expertise to friendlier shores. Governments in places such as the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates have already established regulatory frameworks and their economies are certain to reap the benefits of the resulting financial and related technological innovations.

Read the full article here: Forbes

America Needs to Get Moving on Blockchain

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By Peter Roff. (Cagle Cartoons). May 24, 2024

From the sublime to the ridiculous, America invents. From the airplane to Jell-O, and in between, we somehow understand intuitively what people want and figure out how to get it to them. That’s put us in a position to lead the transformation of the marketplace many times, most recently by our rapid adoption of e-commerce.

It’s time we did it again by applying that same innovative spirit to blockchain. Instead, we’re hesitating. This may be out of fear of the unknown, but that’s easy to fix. Blockchain isn’t complicated and shouldn’t be scary. At its core, it is a peer-to-peer communication technology that could revolutionize global financial transactions, especially those crossing international borders.

The quicker we adopt it, the faster we get to a more streamlined and efficient future. That’s in everybody’s interest. The value of money continually fluctuates. Digital networks must operate quickly for estimates of value at the time of purchase to be accurately preserved. The faster they move, the more precise, secure, and transparent those valuations can be.

Read the full article here: Cagle Cartoon

Bringing clarity to cryptocurrency

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By Rep. French Hill and Rep. Dusty Johnson. (Washington Times). May 21, 2024.

As the FTX collapse demonstrated in 2022, issuing and trading digital assets—including cryptocurrencies—need clear rules of the road.

The regulatory gaps in the digital asset market must be filled by legislation, not by independent agencies ruling by enforcement. If Congress does not take action, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler will continue to exercise broad authority over all digital assets.

That’s why we collaborated with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) to craft our Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which crafts a “fit for purpose” regulatory framework for digital assets that protects consumers and investors while keeping innovation in the United States.

This type of committee collaboration is unprecedented and may be the most substantial piece of digital asset legislation in Congress’s history. FIT21 directs the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), along with the bank supervisors, on how to classify cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as securities or commodities. 

Since our two committees passed FIT21 last summer, this bill has incorporated our members’ bipartisan priorities. We believe it fully responds to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the President’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.

Read the whole piece here: Washington Times.