Head of SEC Enforcement Dept. for Cryptocurrency, Cyber Security Resigns

Published at: July 29, 2019

The chief of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Enforcement's Cyber Unit, Robert A. Cohen, has stepped down from his role at the commission.

According to an official announcement by the SEC, Cohen served as the first chief of the Cyber Unit since its inception in 2017.

The Cyber Unit is in charge of securities violations pertaining to cryptocurrency and digital assets, in addition to cyber-related trading violations and cybersecurity disclosures and procedures.

During his time leading the unit, Cohen supervised a number of investigations, including a lawsuit against the startup Kik for running an unregistered $100 million token offering, as well as charging DJ Khaled and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. for unlawfully advertising an initial coin offering.

Regarding Cohen’s work as chief of the Cyber Unit, the Division of Enforcement’s co-director Steven Peikin said:

"The Cyber Unit has been a great success under Rob's strategic leadership [...] Soon after its creation, the Cyber Unit immediately began filing impactful cases that protect investors and demonstrate the SEC's ability to respond nimbly to new and difficult challenges.”

SEC-approved token offerings

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the SEC recently gave the blockchain-based startup Blockstack the green light to issue a $28 million public token offering under Regulation A+, which is apparently was a first for token offerings. Blockstack founders Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea noted that it took the company approximately 10 months and $2 million to get approval from the SEC.

The SEC also approved a gaming-related token offering, saying that they did not qualify as a security.

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