Paul Atkins, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has stated that the vast majority of initial coin offerings (ICOs) should not be considered as securities transactions. This landmark statement, delivered at the annual Blockchain Association summit, could be pivotal in reviving ICOs in the US.
According to Atkins' proposed classification, only 'tokenised securities' — digital representations of regulated assets — will remain under the SEC's jurisdiction. Categories such as network tokens, digital instruments and collectible digital items are not securities in and of themselves.
Consequently, ICOs related to these three categories should be excluded from SEC oversight and transferred to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which takes a more lenient regulatory approach.
This position is an important step for the crypto industry as it significantly reduces regulatory barriers. It will enable companies to raise capital by issuing new tokens with minimal risk of lawsuits, something which previously paralysed the ICO market after the 2017 boom. Regardless of legislation on the structure of the crypto market being adopted, these comments pave the way for the ICO mechanism to restart rapidly.
Posted by tornavec