Author

Jerome Tomas

Browsing

In November 2018, a U.S. District Court declined to accept the SEC’s argument that an ICO token was a “security.”  There are those who saw this as a setback for the SEC, although, as we wrote on this blog, that was an error because the judge merely held that he needed more evidence to resolve disputed questions of fact.  In the face of a request by the SEC for reconsideration, the judge has now reversed…

On November 27, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California issued a decision that is already being reported as one holding that a token is not a “security.”  That is incorrect.  The court left for another day the issue of whether the token in question meets the securities law definition of a “security.”  It merely held that, for purposes of the request for a preliminary injunction, the court could not conclude that…

On June 6, U.S. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton was interviewed on CNBC about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.  He said, in effect, that “cryptocurrencies, these are replacements for sovereign currencies, replace the dollar, the euro, the yen with bitcoin… that type of currency is not a security.” As a securities lawyer and SEC defense counsel, I thought this was an absolutely correct statement of law, and refreshing candor from the SEC Chairman.  What has concerned me over…