SEC Chairman Says ICOs Should Be Regulated As Securities

Since the Bitcoin fervor of last December, SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton, has been declaring that token sales are securities and should be regulated similarly to stocks on public exchanges.

Today, the SEC Chairman confirmed his classification of ICOs as securities in an interview with CNBC.The Days of the Wild West Are Over.

According to WSJ, the total amount invested in ICOs has risen from $6.6 billion in 2017 to $7.15 billion USD in 2018 so far.

With China already banning ICOs, it has become clear that the regulatory perspective on token sales is not favorable in their current state.

The U.S. is just now beginning to establish a regulatory framework that may classify ICOs as securities, opening the floodgates as to what will happen to coins already listed on exchanges and how future coins will get listed.

In an interview with CNBC, SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton made his perspective on cryptocurrencies and ICOs clear, including how they should be distinguished and how each should be regulated.

"Replace the dollar, the yen, the euro with Bitcoin. That type of currency is not a security."

"Where I give you my money and you go off and make a venture and in return for me giving you my money, you say, 'You know what, I'm going to give you a return.' That is a security, and we regulate that. We regulate the offering of that security, and we regulate the trading of that security."

"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."

As the interview came to a close, CNBC reporter Bob Pisani asked Clayton to confirm his classification of ICOs as securities, to which Clayton replied: "Bob, I just did."