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Comment by mrb | Hacker News Reader

This is not a statement from the SEC, but from chairman Clayton. See footnote [1]: «This statement is my own and does not reflect the views of any other Commissioner or the Commission. This statement is not, and should not be taken as, a definitive discussion of applicable law, all the relevant risks with respect to these products, or a statement of my position on any particular product.»

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ya it might be prudent to tweak the title

Something about that bothers me. Even in this thread some are discussing this as "SEC says". In a way this is a 'pump' for cryptos and that [1] footnote could have been straight up front in the "Public Statement".

Part of what should bother us is that it signals that the law has become too vague to predict, so things are legal and illegal based on the inklings of the law enforcers. This means people are forced to read tea leaves in the enforcer's statements to determine what will be illegal in the future, rather than just reading an objective law on paper.

> just reading an objective law on paper

That, sadly, isn't usually possible either, unless you were implying that a lawyer or team of lawyers would be the person or persons doing the reading. Tho it's still better than being "forced to read tea leaves in the enforcer's statements".

So the chairman is using sec.gov as his personal blog? That doesn’t seem right...

wait till you see how other commissioners vote alongside the chair

Can't see any reason why they wouldn't. This seems all very straightforward. It looks like the advice is going out now to inform the market there are likely to be issues with many ICO's, and especially new ones.

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