Bittrex, one of the leading cryptocurrency and blockchain asset exchanges has in response to the SEC report on ICOs as securities stated they’re proud to operate in the growing digital asset ecosystem and recognize that it still has a great deal of uncertainty. Since its founding, the company has established and held a high bar for adding new tokens to its exchange which balances the desire to foster innovation against the company’s belief in adhering to the legal and the regulatory guidelines of the jurisdictions which they live and operate in.
Initial Token Offerings (ICOs) are a way for entrepreneurs, who may not otherwise have access to capital, to fund innovative businesses. Often times, for these businesses to be successful, a wide distribution of their tokens, which underpins the business, is a must. Bittrex says “our goal is to lead the market with a secure, performant, and compliant platform for the trading and distribution of these tokens.”
Bittrex is based in the United States and has a global customer base that trades digital tokens. The company closely adheres to SEC and CFTC related laws and regulation and partners with top-quality legal, compliance, government relations and regulatory professionals through its relationships with Perkins Coie, Delta Strategy Group, and others. Bittrex also serves on the Executive Committee of the Washington D.C. based Chamber of Digital Commerce, an American advocacy group that promotes the emerging industry behind blockchain technology and it meets with regulators and legislators to educate them about this exciting industry.
The Bittrex team stated:
“We applaud the SEC in issuing its Digital Asset Investigative Report. In the report, the Commission notes that whether a particular investment transaction involves the offer or sale of a security will depend on the facts and circumstances, including the economic realities of the transaction. Prior to listing any new token, Bittrex performs this fact and circumstance analysis and considers if a token might be deemed a security under the Howey Test, prior to listing.”
“We strive to only list “use” tokens or tokens which represent a good or service. We conduct a thorough compliance review to avoid listing tokens that may be deemed a security. We believe this is industry best practice and we are pleased that the SEC Report reaches a similar conclusion.”
Other quotes from the blockchain space include:
Ari Meilich, Project Lead, Decentralnd (blockchain-based virtual world) who is launching a token sale of their own soon, said:
“The SEC weighing in represents public acceptance of blockchain instruments. They said that the DAO tokens were a security and that all securities must be registered according to the law. The market was anticipating this, and the price of non-security tokens, like Ethereum, did not fluctuate when the SEC report came out.”
Perry Woodin, Node40 CEO (Blockchain accounting and governance firm) said:
“Breakthrough advancements in technology often give way to rapid acceleration of new business ideas. The number of businesses supporting blockchain applications have exploded over the past couple of years, and with them we’ve seen new tools for raising capital. The issues that crop up during these cycles of rapid business acceleration often lead to individuals taking a chance with compliance.”
“As we have seen with blockchain, those taking a position that their actions fall into a legal grey area are often shocked to find that compliance is black or white. If you’re aiming for the middle ground, you will likely find yourself out of compliance and subject to existing, or yet to be defined regulations. The SEC’s report on ICOs was not a surprise. Many of the ICOs were aiming for that compliance grey area. They wanted their offerings to be considered “crowdfunding” even though they could not meet the requirements of the Regulation Crowdfunding exemption. Now we’ll see what happens as companies attempt to fit within the SEC’s guidelines.”