First Cryptocurrency Chief Is Assigned By SEC
The assignment of Valerie Szczepanik on the post of Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance and Senior Adviser for Digital Assets and Innovation has been declared by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently. The actual post of Szczepanik is Cryptocurrency Chief.
In the recently created post, Szczepanik takes responsibility for controlling the application program of U.S. securities laws “to emerging digital asset technologies and innovations, include Initial Coin Offerings and cryptocurrencies.”
The SEC issued an order in March which indicates that online network platforms providing trading of digital funds that meet the federal definition of a security need to register with the SEC as an internal securities exchange or be released from registration which means that it is accessible only to experienced buyers.
The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has decided that digital currencies are products and will be regulated and stabilized by the CFTC. In case digital currencies are products, thereupon they will be regulated and stabilized by the CFTC and investors will not get any safety from U.S. securities laws enforced by the SEC.
The SEC and the CFTC are at the moment discussing whether Ethereum is submitting a security or a product. There will be only one answer which depends on whether the developers of Ethereum or other digital currencies (Bitcoin) have excessive impact over the importance and cost of the mentioned digital assets. The consideration is further technical and sophisticated than it can seem to us.
Bill Hinman, SEC division director, Szczepanik’s new boss, mentioned:
Valerie recognized early on the securities law implications of developments like blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, and of cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings, tokenized securities, and other digital instruments. She is a recognized leader in responding to developments in our markets.
Digital currency exchanges and investors do not require digital funds to be controlled as securities, choosing instead of it the more freely set producrt designation..
