15 Congress Members Want Clarification From SEC Regarding Crypto/ICO Guidelines

Fifteen members of the Congress are in the crypto news around regulation recently, after signing a letter and asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its Chairman, Jay Clayton, to clarify the guidelines that the agency uses to determine whether cryptocurrency assets are securities under the federal law.

The letter has already been signed by 15 lawmakers across the political spectrum. In it, the members are asking Chairman Clayton what precisely makes an ICO token or a security – and how he is planning to address the concerns that the SEC’s failure to list definitive guidance is leading many startups out of the country.

“Current uncertainty surrounding the treatment of offers and sales of digital tokens is hindering innovation in the United States and will ultimately drive business elsewhere.”

Later in the letter, the legislators also question the SEC’s decision to use enforcement actions and clarify policy on cryptoassets.

“We believe that the SEC could do more to clarify its position. Additionally, we are concerned about the use of enforcement actions alone to clarify policy and believe that formal guidance may be an appropriate approach to clearing up legal uncertainties which are causing the environment for the development of innovative technologies in the United States to be unnecessarily fraught.”

The lawmakers also asked Clayton to answer three specific questions related to the legal status of ICO tokens and other cryptocurrency assets.

The publication of the letter comes days after Representative Warren Davidson – who is one of the co-signers of the latter – hosted an ICO summit on Capitol Hill in which the representatives from the cryptocurrency and mainstream financial industries asked the Congress to provide a clear regulatory framework for blockchain innovation.

You can read the full letter by clicking on this link.