Recent actions reinforce the SEC’s commitment to applying traditional securities markets regulation in the cryptocurrency markets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, or the Commission) recently issued a public statement1 and announced five settled orders instituting cease-and-desist proceedings that shed light on how the SEC will continue to apply “the well-established and well-functioning federal securities law framework” to the nascent cryptocurrency markets. These orders — one against a token exchange, two against token issuers, and two against promoters — clarify the SEC’s approach for:

..Determining whether token transactions constitute unregistered securities offerings or unregistered broker-dealer or exchange activity

..Resolving unregistered token offerings