The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairman, Jay Clayton, has recently said that Ethereum and similar cryptocurrencies could have been classified as securities in the past, but they can no longer be considered as such, The Block reported yesterday.
William Hinman, SEC director of corporation finance, said last June:
"Based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions. And, as with Bitcoin, applying the disclosure regime of the federal securities laws to current transactions in Ether would seem to add little value."
CoinCenter sent a letter to Clayton asking him to comment on Hinman's words and has just published his official response:
"I agree with Director Hinman’s explanation of how a digital asset transaction may no longer represent an investment contract if, for example, purchasers would no longer reasonably expect a person or group to carry out the essential managerial or entrepreneurial efforts. Under those circumstances, the digital asset may not represent an investment contract under the Howey framework."
He has added that a digital asset that is considered as a security at some point may change over time "if the way it is offered and sold does not make it an investment anymore."
Last summer, Jay Clayton said that Bitcoin could not be classified as a security.
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