SEC Director of Corporate Finance Says Some Tokens May Not Be Securities

At the recent Fintech Forum held by the SEC, the Director of Corporate Finance made some interesting comments on the status of security tokens. Ultimately, he said, this process will take time. 

At the Fintech Forum held by the SEC recently, some discussions were had on the nature of security tokens. The hot topic has been a fixture a the SEC over how they will proceed with the growing list of issuers opting to conduct STOs in the United States. Although previously, it was said that all tokens were securities, it seems that the overall picture may be a bit more complicated.

SEC Director of Corporate Finance Bill Hinman praised blockchain technology at the event, and said that it has the potential to create asset-backed securities more efficient. He particularly noted its ability to cut costs and improve transparency. Hinman also hopes that the wild ICO days, when tokens were not registering as securities, is behind us.

The Definition of a Token “May Morph Over Time”

Hinman elaborated that these filings and the regulatory situation were still a work in progress. That’s because the industry has no precedent to go off of. He also said that the notion of a token will “morph over time.”

Hinman essentially said that a token can be trading, but that does not mean it is necessarily a security. This is a radical departure from what the SEC has said in the past, so we will have to see if this opinion still holds.

Hinman also made clear that the SEC definitely has a “crypto family” within it.

Do you think that Hinman’s comments are indicative of changing attitudes within the SEC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image courtesy Yahoo Finance.