4 ms·

I guess I don’t know enough about the technical differences. Doesn’t the SEC regulate both?

colechristensen 5y ago
"investment" is vague The SEC regulates how companies represent themselves to investors and how certain things representing ownership are traded and represented. The exact surface that fits inside the SEC I don't know exactly and one has to be an expert to know (and the SEC doesn't necessarily know itself). Cryptocurrencies went from being completely outside regulation to somewhat inside, but the laws, courts, and regulations are starting to slowly catch up. Everyone is still figuring out things as they go along. When cryptos are used to represent a piece of ownership though, it is cut and dry, they are securities and subject to existing regulations. When cryptos don't correspond to the value of something external though, they are somewhat new and just don't yet fit into the existing regulatory framework and the attitude of regulators is generally wait and see while going after the most clear abuses and easy cases first to build up a framework for whatever the future will hold. "common sense" of what cryptos are or aren't doesn't work, whatever regulators do, there will be high profile lawsuits for the courts to decide what they are and aren't, shaping this process and doing things which are clearly legal or illegal first in the best interests of the regulator is what happens. (in other words, they don't want to go out on a limb right away in tricky edge cases, they want to get things in a pattern and decided with the easy cases first)
- donmcronald 5y ago
  Ok. That makes sense. If I own a coin, the coin is the only thing I own. There’s no underlying security (asset) that gives it value. So then it would be more accurate for me to have said that in Canada all crypto gains and losses are considered income or capital gains/losses for tax purposes. IE: You have to track your gains/losses like you do for stocks. I only considered my side of the view where there’s not much difference. I’m guessing you’re talking about the side that creates coins where the technicalities of whether or not they’re securities makes a huge difference for regulatory requirements. Thanks for explaining.

"investment" is vague The SEC regulates how companies represent themselves to investors and how certain things representing ownership are traded and represented. The exact surface that fits inside the SEC I don't know exactly and one has to be an expert to know (and the SEC doesn't necessarily know itself). Cryptocurrencies went from being completely outside regulation to somewhat inside, but the laws, courts, and regulations are starting to slowly catch up. Everyone is still figuring out things as they go along. When cryptos are used to represent a piece of ownership though, it is cut and dry, they are securities and subject to existing regulations. When cryptos don't correspond to the value of something external though, they are somewhat new and just don't yet fit into the existing regulatory framework and the attitude of regulators is generally wait and see while going after the most clear abuses and easy cases first to build up a framework for whatever the future will hold. "common sense" of what cryptos are or aren't doesn't work, whatever regulators do, there will be high profile lawsuits for the courts to decide what they are and aren't, shaping this process and doing things which are clearly legal or illegal first in the best interests of the regulator is what happens. (in other words, they don't want to go out on a limb right away in tricky edge cases, they want to get things in a pattern and decided with the easy cases first)

donmcronald 5y ago
Ok. That makes sense. If I own a coin, the coin is the only thing I own. There’s no underlying security (asset) that gives it value. So then it would be more accurate for me to have said that in Canada all crypto gains and losses are considered income or capital gains/losses for tax purposes. IE: You have to track your gains/losses like you do for stocks. I only considered my side of the view where there’s not much difference. I’m guessing you’re talking about the side that creates coins where the technicalities of whether or not they’re securities makes a huge difference for regulatory requirements. Thanks for explaining.