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Anecdotally, from a practitioner, this one, it makes it increasingly challenging to advise people in the “DeFi” space not to sell a governance token which is almost certainly a security when the SEC appears to be doing little to police this. It doesn’t impact our advice *but* >>
Given the announcement from a US based issuer yesterday that they are issuing a massive number of tokens that appear almost certainly to be investment contracts under Howey, Telegram, and the SEC’s own framework document >>
<< we will surely be hearing more of the same. I appreciate that we don& #39;t have telepathy into the SEC& #39;s workings, that much goes on behind the scenes, over a long time horizon, but as practitioners you& #39;d make our lives easier if you appeared to be paying attention.
OR >>
OR >>
<< If DeFI governance tokens are a thing you have concluded as a matter of policy aren& #39;t going to be shut down and are fine (which they don& #39;t seem to be under the current rubric), please say so.
It& #39;s even trickier where one commissioner has come out strongly against >>
It& #39;s even trickier where one commissioner has come out strongly against >>
<< enforcement in non-fraud token issuances.
The problem that we have is our clients, who come to us for conservative advice and to stay out of trouble, face a competitive disadvantage when you turn a blind eye on rule breakers, and prejudice their ability to fairly compete >>
The problem that we have is our clients, who come to us for conservative advice and to stay out of trouble, face a competitive disadvantage when you turn a blind eye on rule breakers, and prejudice their ability to fairly compete >>
So, while it& #39;s never a Hobson& #39;s choice to follow the law, to be sure, and doesn& #39;t change how we advise people, it seems unfair in our client& #39;s eyes to let someone massively scale by doing a thing that by the book is not OK but where it& #39;s a book you don& #39;t throw at the competition.
<< I personally don& #39;t care and think that the broad sweep of the BSA, OFAC & securities laws, are an impediment to certain technological development. But I also don& #39;t want my clients to break the law, face steep fines, imprisonment, private litigation. BUT, the law& #39;s the law >>
>> and Clayton and others have said we have an obligation as lawyers to steer our clients in the right direction. We& #39;ll continue to do that but if anyone from the SEC is listening ... We could use a little help.
Thanks.
Love,
Palley
Thanks.
Love,
Palley
