Regulator Publishings on Cryptocurrencies
The following is a list of commentary from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
| Date (M/D/Y) | SEC Posting Titles/Links | Details |
| 3/28/2003 | Final Rule: Custody of Investment Company Assets with a Securities Depository | Amendments to the Investment Company Act of 1940 |
| 7/9/2017 | Comments on File No. SR-NYSE Arca-2017-06 | Ari Paul suggests the positive disruptive effects cryptocurrencies would have on capital markets through the creation of cryptocurrency-ETFs on regulated exchanges such as the NYSE. |
| 7/25/2017 | Report of Investigation Pursuant to Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: The DAO | SEC explicates the importance of complying with securities acts by registering with SEC. |
| 7/25/2017 | SEC Issues Investigative Report Concluding DAO Tokens, a Digital Asset, Were Securities | Press release detailing how U.S. securities laws may apply to offers, sales, and trading of interests in virtual organizations |
| 12/11/2017 | Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings | Inform investors and market professionals on the securities laws that they must abide to. Details discussions around cryptocurrencies, ICO's and securities regulations |
| 1/4/2018 | Statement on NASAA’s Message to Investors about ICOs | Explains that investing in ICO's that are not compliant with regulations are risky and cautions "that, if you lose money, there is a substantial risk that our effrots will not result in a recovery of your investment |
| 1/18/2018 | Staff Letter: Engaging on Fund Innovation and Cryptocurrency-related Holdings | Highlighting 5 thematic questions that need to be discussed to engage fund innovation in cryptoasset holdings. |
| 1/25/2018 | Statement by SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo: Regulators are Looking at Cryptocurrency | Announcing the CFTC and SEC's commitment to "continue to work together to bring transparency and integrity to these markets and, importantly, to deter and prosecute fraud and abuse" |
| 2/6/2018 | Chairman’s Testimony on Virtual Currencies: The Roles of the SEC and CFTC | Testimony to Congress on the roles the SEC and CFTC will play on regulating cryptocurrencies. |
| 2/16/2018 | SEC SUSPENDS TRADING IN THREE ISSUERS CLAIMING INVOLVEMENT IN CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY | SEC SUSPENDS TRADING IN THREE ISSUERS CLAIMING INVOLVEMENT IN CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY |
| 3/7/2018 | Statement on Potentially Unlawful Online Platforms for Trading Digital Assets | This public statement details regulatory framework for which exchanges must register with and provides resources for the pursuance of compliancy. |
| 5/2/2018 | Beaches and Bitcoin: Remarks before the Medici Conference | Commissioner Peirce discusses the roles of "regulatory sandboxes" and "lifeguards" play in monitoring innovation. |
| 5/22/2018 | Statement on NASAA’s Announcement of Enforcement Sweep Targeting Fraudulent ICOs and Crypto-asset Investment Products | This statement announces enforcement actions by the SEC and NASAA to regulate and forewarn investors about fraudulant ICO's |
| 6/4/2018 | SEC Names Valerie A. Szczepanik Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation | SEC appoints senior advisor for new position title Digital Assets and Innovation Senior Advisor |
| 6/14/2018 | Speech by Director of Divison of Corporate Finance clarifies that Ethereum is not a security. Presents questions to possibly define what makes a digital asset a security. | |
| 7/26/2018 | Dissent of Commissioner Hester M. Peirce to Release No. 34-83723; File No. SR-BatsBZX-2016-30 | "I respectfully dissent from the Commission’s order disapproving a proposed rule change, as amended, to list and trade shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust on Bats BZX Exchange, Inc. (“BZX”)." - Commissioner Hester M. Peirce |
| 8/22/2018 |
Release No. 34-83904; File No. SR-NYSEArca-2017-139
|
Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE Arca, Inc.; Order Disapproving a Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade the Shares of the ProShares Bitcoin ETF and the ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF |
| 9/13/2018 | Statement Regarding SEC Staff Views | "The Commission’s longstanding position is that all staff statements are nonbinding and create no enforceable legal rights or obligations of the Commission or other parties." |
| 12/6/2018 | SEC Rulemaking Over the Past Year, the Road Ahead and Challenges Posed by Brexit, LIBOR Transition and Cybersecurity Risks | "I will review our progress on the agenda for 2018, then discuss the agenda for 2019, and close with observations on certain of the key risks that we are monitoring—namely, Brexit, the LIBOR transition and cybersecurity risks." |
| 12/6/2018 | Notice of Designation of a Longer Period for Commission Action on Proceedings to Determine Whether to Approve or Disapprove a Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade Shares of SolidX Bitcoin Shares Issued by the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust | "The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue
an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change." |
| 4/18/2019 | NYDFS: Why We Rejected Bittrex's Application for a BitLicense | "Bittrex purportedly aims to get the facts straight about the denial of its license applications by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) in recent statements to the media (including CoinDesk). But, the cryptocurrency exchange leaves out the context necessary to understand its failures to comply with DFS’s licensing requirements, it continues to misstate the facts and it presents a misleading picture about the denial." |
| 5/9/2019 | Application of FinCEN’s Regulations to Certain Business Models Involving Convertible Virtual Currencies | "Under FinCEN regulations, a person is exempt from money transmitter status if the person only provides the delivery, communication, or network access services used by a money transmitter to support money transmission services. Consistent with this exemption, if a CVC trading platform only provides a forum where buyers and sellers of CVC post their bids and offers (with or without automatic matching of counterparties), and the parties themselves settle any matched transactions through an outside venue (either through individual wallets or other wallets not hosted by the trading platform), the trading platform does not qualify as a money transmitter under FinCEN regulations." |
| 5/9/2019 | How We Howey Speech by SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce | "One year ago, I gave a speech—appropriately in Southern California—called “Beaches and Bitcoin.” At that time—not so long ago in analog time but eons ago in digital time—the burning question was how to decide when issuing tokens constituted an offering of securities. The industry was rapidly developing and I worried that the SEC, as one of its potential regulators, would stifle its growth. I will admit today that I was very wrong, not about whether the SEC would stifle the industry’s growth—it has—but in how it would do it." |
| 5/14/2019 | SEC Release No. 34-85854 Relating to the Listing and Trading of Shares of the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust | "Pursuant to Section 19(b)(2)(B) of the Act,49 the Commission is providing notice of the grounds for disapproval under consideration." |
| 7/8/2019 | SEC Joint Staff Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Digital Asset Securities | "Market participants have raised questions concerning the application of the federal securities laws and the rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) to the potential intermediation—including custody—of digital asset securities and transactions. In this statement, the staffs of the Division of Trading and Markets (the “Division”) and FINRA (collectively, the “Staffs”)—drawing upon key principles from their historic approach to broker-dealer regulation and investor protection—have articulated various considerations relevant to many of these questions, particularly under the SEC’s Customer Protection Rule applicable to SEC-registered broker-dealers." |
