Initial Coin Offerings: Where the SEC Might Stand

If I need to care about what the SEC might think, then it is the wrong tech!!!

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That was an interesting read. It will be more important depending on what the appeal says. The SEC has stretched the definitions to cover something its laws were not meant to cover, so the appeals court will be making some very important decisions.

You noticed that while the court agreed with the SEC they immediately gave leave for an appeal due to the ā€œcreativeā€ decision of the case. In other words on the surface they can see grounds for the decision but are uncertain of the grounds for that decision.

When the SEC can expand the meanings of well established terms/concepts then who knows.

Many people doing ICOā€™s are setting up in Singapore, Panama, etc. to get around some of the concerns about SEC regs ā€¦ even so, they sometimes warn away US based investors from joining their ICO. If you are living in the US and investing in ICOā€™s, make sure you are aware of potential legal pitfalls.

Itā€™s hard to predict consequences of creeping legal decisions, but I think itā€™s a stretch for this to reach into ICOs in any broad sense.

This ā€œTraffic Monsoonā€ is another twist on these famous Utah scams. Really brash, slippery and unscrupulous bastards. I find it hard to blame the feds too much for doing all they can to take them down.

I think the writers stretch things a bit, but weā€™ll see.

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https://www.coindesk.com/sec-statements-spur-shapeshift-review-cryptocurrency-listings/

Iā€™m curious what peoples thoughts are about this recent article and the potential for ShapeShip to halt trading of maidsafe tokens for US customers.

MAIDSAFE tokens have been grayed out for months on Shapeshift. As far as I can tell, they had already stopped trading them. Very disappointing.

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Ok, thanks, good to know. Really trying to determine how this plays out for other US exchanges like polo to halt trading of maidsafe should they apply the Howey Test and consider it a security under these new regulations.

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Any coin with real utility canā€™t be classified as security. SafeCoin is a burnable utility so itā€™s pretty safe from SEC interference as I understand it. Iā€™m not sure on the situation for ā€˜holderā€™ tokens like MAID, but bureaucratic wheels tend to move slowly, so my guess is this never becomes an issue.

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This is where speed matters. Entities like the SEC in the sponsored media US seek to protect status quo, SAFE is seeking to deeply disrupt it. Speed/timing and luck will allow SAFE to be proactive instead of reactive. Speed will put the SEC up against practicality of enforcement and limit it dictums. Speed can for instance limit scare tactics, donā€™t want them trying to complicate a launch with such tactics.

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