As the blockchain community grapples with the fallout from recent regulatory actions, legal experts are warning more enforcement measures could be on the horizon – and that token exchanges are a probable target.
To recap, last week saw the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that a defunct blockchain-based token called The DAO constituted an unregistered security. Just hours later, the Department of Justice and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) levied a $110 million penalty against BTC-e and arrested one of its founders – actions that struck an exchange that had long openly flouted the law.
The timing seemed hardly a coincidence, and at a blockchain industry conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Carol Van Cleef, a fintech attorney at Baker Hostetler, affirmed that she believes the two events are likely to be closely linked.
https://www.coindesk.com/legal-experts-warn-of-coming-crackdown-on-token-exchanges/