U.S. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Says Cryptocurrencies Won’t Get any Exception In The Existing Rule

Well, it been over an year that the U.S. SEC has been locking its horns with different players of the crypto industry. The continued saga of a Bitcoin ETF has yet to see a real derivative product coming to the market.

Recently, during an interview with Bloomberg, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton spoke about the regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies.

Clayton said that there will be no special provisions in the securities laws for digital currencies, but also added that he would neither come in their way as well! The SEC Chairman added that there is no need for tweaking the existing rules either to include or exclude the digital currencies.

He added: “I think a lot of people got excited that somehow we would change the rules to accommodate the technology and they invested their time and effort thinking that would happen [...] I have been pretty clear from the start, that isn’t happening.’’

Within the crypto community, Clayton is often seen as the one standing in the way of new product innovation in the market. Making this clear, he said that he is not against any innovation taking place in the digital payments market.

He said: “If we have a way to reduce the cost of payments internationally, through technology, I am all for it [...] But you can’t sacrifice basic principles of securities law, and other law, to allow it to happen.’’

Recently, the SEC is having a strict vigilance on the ICO project and dragged a few for promoting unlawful and ‘get rich quick’ schemes to investors. Clayton agrees to it that the SEC has seen many initial coin offerings (ICOs) which are fit for securities regulations.

However, he adds that there are a few ICO projects which disturbing and using languages like “time is running out’’ or “get in early and you get four times as much value,” with the intent to trap innocent investors. Thus, Clayton says that his agency acts against such projects who aim to misguide people into investing in their schemes.

In the interview, the SEC Chairman also said that not all digital currencies are identical. For instance, he notes that he doesn’t consider Bitcoin as a security.