The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, said that the SEC would not review the definition of a security.
Companies that raise funds through sales of digital tokens should not think that the government would treat them differently than firms participating in the traditional securities market, the head of SEC Jay Clayton said in CNBC interview.
"We are not going to do any violence to the traditional definition of a security that has worked for a long time. We've been doing this a long time, there's no need to change the definition," chairman added.
In addition, the SEC will not change the rules for initial coin offerings. Clayton gave a clear signal that the fight against the fraudulent ICOs is just beginning. He also noted that there are already examples of how fraudsters have left the US.
“I’m protecting the integrity of the market. The behavior we see in this is pretty bad. We’ve got guys with bags of cash headed to the border. That’s not our securities market,” Clayton said.
Separately, the chairman also said that in his opinion, the tokens or digital assets that are used during the ICO are securities.
"A token, a digital asset, where I give you my money and you go off and make a venture, and in return for giving you my money I say 'you can get a return' that is a security and we regulate that," Clayton explained.
Note that over the past months, the SEC has accused a number of ICOs of fraud. Earlier, the agency created its own scam ICO to warn investors against fraudulent cryptocurrencies. HoweyCoins advertises itself as “one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms ever built” and looks like a real, attractive ICO. However, everybody who tries to buy coins are instead being redirected to a secure SEC page.
Earlier this week, the SEC picked a new crypto chief. Valerie Szczepanik was appointed as the new Senior Adviser for Digital Assets to the U.S. government and Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova