Why Crypto Flinches When SEC Calls Coins Securities: QuickTake

Cryptocurrency traders have been put on notice that the US Securities and Exchange Commission considers a range of widely traded digital assets to be securities, a position that could impose regulatory requirements that many boosters say could be crippling. But figuring out what does or doesn’t make a coin a security is a complicated question.

1. What is the SEC doing?

Its chair, Gary Gensler, and his Trump-era predecessor, Jay Clayton, have said that many digital assets have the hallmarks of securities. Gensler spent the past year warning that the agency was planning to take a hard line ...