There Securities and Exchange Commission (Dry) is changing positions on cryptocurrencies, and that doesn’t appeal to everyone. Even if the US regulatory agency has recently declared that Bitcoin was not a legal currencyshe also abandoned her prosecution against Coinbase and Binance. And it is above all this last decision which makes controversy, because the SEC has abandoned its accusations against the staking services of these crypto-bours. A decision that would be in contradiction with previous court decisions.
- The SEC shocked by abandoning its prosecution against Coinbase and Binance concerning Staking.
- Critics have emerged accusing the dry of contradicting itself in the face of previous judicial decisions.
The dry in contradiction with the judges on Stuking?
On May 29, the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC has published new directives on the services of stuking cryptocurrencies. According to this document, certain storage offers would not be securities (financial titles), and would therefore not need to be registered with the SEC.
This interpretation of the dry was criticized by John Reed Starkformer head of the dry Internet application. According to him, the Commission would contradict himself in relation to court decisions in affairs against Binance And Cornerbase. Indeed, in these two cases, the judges had estimated that the stoking products offered by the platforms could be considered like securities.
“This is how the SEC dies – in broad daylight (…) a shameful abdication of its mission to protect investors. »»
John Reed Stark, former head of the dry Internet application
Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw also criticizes her own agency
Caroline Crenshaw, the SEC commissioner, also expressed her disagreement with the agency’s approach on Staking. In a press release of May 29, she said that the analysis of the SEC staff did not correspond to established case law or Howey testwhich is the test used to determine if an asset is a security.
« The analysis of the staff can reflect what some people want the law to be, but it does not correspond to the court decisions on the Staking and the long -standing precedent of Howey on which they are based (…) This is another example of the continuous approach to the dry consisting in pretending until we arrived ‘in terms of cryptocurrencies – take measures based on the anticipation of future changes while ignoring existing law. »»
Caroline Crenshaw, SEC commissioner
The SEC therefore decided to show more flexibility towards cryptocurrencies, but that is not unanimous. Some observers believe that the Commission should maintain its hard line against Staking services, which they say are offers of unregistered securities. Others, on the contrary, salute this development which could promote the innovation and competitiveness of the crypto sector in the United States.