Investors Meet SEC, Ask for Free Pass on Ether

Andreessen Horowitz organizes a meeting of Ethereum investors and lawyers with the SEC to lobby for a free regulatory pass to ether, which was launched with an ICO in 2014 and has been sold in large quantities to investors for speculative purposes afterwards. Nathaniel Popper, a reporter for the New York Times that reports the story, tweeted that the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital working group “quietly met” with the SEC to suggest that “some virtual currencies be protected from the dreaded status of being a security”. Popper adds in another tweet that “regulators have indicated in private meetings” they were considering a free pass specifically for ether.

A participant in the meeting, Nancy Wotjas, later confirmed that it was a group of Ethereum investors and a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, the law firm of Perkins Coie, gave the SEC the written proposals that the New York Times quoted as seeking a free pass for ether.

All documentation, reporting and subsequent retelling of events from those in the room (as detailed in this Video Library) indicate that ether was the sole digital asset discussed for a regulatory free pass in these “quiet” and “private” meetings between Ethereum investors and the SEC.

Sources: The New York Times; @digitalassetbuy