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From the linked page on the Howey Test > "The U.S. Supreme Court's Howey case and subsequent case law have found that an "investment contract" exists when ther
by paddw 4y ago
From the linked page on the Howey Test
> "The U.S. Supreme Court's Howey case and subsequent case law have found that an "investment contract" exists when there is the investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others.[5] The so-called "Howey test" applies to any contract, scheme, or transaction, regardless of whether it has any of the characteristics of typical securities."
So I guess they are arguing they are not securities since their is no "effort of others" even if there could be a reasonable expectation of profits? Similar to art I guess? This seems like a plausible case on a strictly by definition basis, regardless of the way people are actually acting.
If the case is that the SEC just doesn't want to let them register the any of it, is there really no way they could be more straightforward? It seems like post FTX they would have a lot of leeway for this kind of thing. Unless maybe they think enforcement is a better path to lead to eventual regulation?
- e63f67dd-065b 4y ago> If the case is that the SEC just doesn't want to let them register the any of it, is there really no way they could be more straightforward? It seems like post FTX they would have a lot of leeway for this kind of thing. Unless maybe they think enforcement is a better path to lead to eventual regulation? Part of it is political capital imo: when crypto was going up, saying "none of this is legal" costs political capital and nobody wants to listen; when it's going down and FTX is collapsing, saying "none of this is legal" is free and suddenly Congress/courts are much more partial to the message. It's the nature of such regulatory agencies. The path to career advancement is often shouting "this is bad, we should regulate" after a disaster occurs, not before. Before the disaster, <thing> made money, and putting a stop to it is hard; after the disaster, <thing> lost people money, people are angry, so putting a stop to it is much easier.