Caroline Crenshaw, a commissioner at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, has said the “safe harbor” proposal would have exacerbated the problems seen during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017 and 2018. Crenshaw made the remarks during the annual “SEC Speaks” event this month and posted her speech to the SEC website on Tuesday. The commissioner argues that the impact on investors and markets would have been far greater if safe harbor provisions were in place at the time: “I think the results would have been even worse for investors and the markets. ICOs and other digital …
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has charged a cryptocurrency issuer for “making materially false and misleading statements” in connection with an unregistered security offering conducted between August 2017 and January 2018, offering further evidence that regulators were still targeting initial coin offerings from the last major market mania. Loci Inc., the platform behind LOCIcoin, and CEO John Wise were formally charged on Tuesday. The SEC claims that Loci and Wise misled investors about the company’s revenues, employee numbers and user base during the $7.6 million crowdsale. The regulator also alleges that Wise misused $38,163 in investor …
Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” Well, well, well. It seems that some of those class-action law firms that ferret out possible securities claims in search of fees and recovery for investors, sometimes wrapped self-righteously in the flag of investor harm and rights, are properly receiving a cold shoulder …
A new round of documents have been filed in the lengthy dispute between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and Kik Interactive Inc. over the messaging company’s 2017 initial coin offering, or ICO. Both parties are seeking summary judgment, with the SEC submitting a proposed order that it hopes the court will sign. However, Kik is confident that the judge will rule in its favor, asserting that the SEC’s argument rests heavily on construing the Telegram case as precedent. SEC proposes summary judgment order The SEC filed a proposed order on May 8 outlining its request for …
The crypto community celebrated a victory in court on Jan. 30 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted in the remedies hearing of the LBRY case that secondary sales of its LBC coin were not securities sales. John Deaton, who represents Ripple in court in the SEC’s case against it, was so excited that he created a video for his Twitter-hosted CryptoLawTV channel that evening. Deaton, a friend of the court, or amicus curiae, in the case, recounted a conversation he had with the judge that day. “Look, let’s not pretend. Secondary market sales are a problem,” …