ICO Alert Crypto Minute: June 16, 2018
Director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance said in prepared remarks that “current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions,” top 5 cryptocurrency price changes, and more!
U.S. SEC’S William Hinman Suggests Ethereum-Based Utility Tokens Are Not Securities
On 14 June 2018, William Hinman, the director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance, said in prepared remarks that “current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions,” due to Ethereum’s “decentralized structure.” The SEC has focused primarily on investors’ intent when buying a cryptocurrency. If an ICO does not set an expectation that their cryptocurrency will increase in value and does clearly communicate and demonstrate the utility of their token, the SEC is unlikely to label those tokens as securities, based on Hinman’s statements.
Reserve Bank of India Admits No Research or Data Backed Its Decision to Prohibit Cryptocurrency-Related Businesses and Individuals from Banking Services
In a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by New Delhi attorney Varun Sethi, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) admitted that it had not conducted any formal research before deciding to ban cryptocurrency-related business and customers from banking services in April 2018. According to ETHNews, RBI also did not create any committee to analyze underlying concepts, nor did it seek input from other central banks or any cryptocurrency experts. These admissions from RBI were published two months after the ban took place.
London Block Exchange Reaches Banking Deal with ClearBank
London Block Exchange, one of the UK’s better-known digital wallet providers, has agreed to terms with British start-up ClearBank to open a bank account. According to Reuters, the agreement will allow customers in the U.K. to trade cryptocurrencies without moving their money overseas. Traditional British and other European financial institutions have avoiding providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges due to their regulatory risk.
