This article comes fromCoinDesk, Original Author: Anna Baydakova & Marc Hochstein
Odaily Translator |
Odaily Translator |
According to Valerie Szczepanik, senior advisor for digital assets and innovation at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in a speech at the CoinDesk Consensus Conference 2019 held on Monday (May 13) local time, some cryptocurrency exchanges may have violated US securities laws by issuing IEO products. .
According to Valerie Szczepanik, if the buyer and any buyer are located in the United States, as long as the cryptocurrency exchange that launches the token sale business and collects transaction fees from it must meet the legal definition of a US securities dealer. As a result, these cryptocurrency exchanges need to follow the registration and licensing requirements of broker-dealers, alternative trading systems (ATS), or national securities exchanges. Valerie Szczepanik emphasized that if these exchanges do not operate as required, then they could be in trouble (implying regulatory penalties).
In a conversation with Bloomberg reporter Matthew Leising, Valerie Szczepanik said that any cryptocurrency exchange that collects listing fees for listings or helps IEO sellers attract buyers may be in the brokerage or reseller business. He added:
“If these cryptocurrency exchanges are not registered, and their issuers, their buyers are in the US, and they operate in the US market, they will find themselves in trouble in the US.”
Although Valerie Szczepanik did not specify which cryptocurrency exchanges are under its jurisdiction, we know that exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, Bittrex, and KuCoin have all launched their own IEO products and services, and these businesses are said to have provided They bring in millions of dollars in fee revenue.
At this stage, the most famous IEO platform is Binance’s Launchpad, which publicly sold BitTorrent tokens in January this year, raising $7.4 million for the file-sharing service company owned by TRON.
Valerie Szczepanik explained that if people are not clear about the regulatory direction, they can refer to a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against TokenLot last year, which may have guiding significance in IEO regulation. She concluded by saying:
