At a recent securities regulation conference, Bill Hinman, Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, indicated that the agency intends to release “plain English” guidance around the issue of whether an ICO is a security. The SEC has provided guidance on these issues in its DAO Report and Hinman’s own prior speech, and as we have frequently blogged, has been actively enforcing perceived violations of the federal securities laws. The idea behind the plain English guidance appears to be to consolidate the SEC staff’s views into a single “how to” document for use by the lay person.
As part of the process, Hinman indicated that the SEC staff is considering various issues around ICOs and other digital securities, including valuation, disclosure, accounting, custody and secondary trading. Hinman acknowledged a backlog of filings by parties seeking to conduct registered offerings with the SEC, and observed that the staff is processing them slowly due to the novel and unique issues they raise. While he did not commit to a set publication date, Hinman estimated that the new guidance would be released by early 2019.
PartnerScott brings in-depth knowledge of SEC policies, procedures and enforcement philosophy to each representation. Scott regularly advises clients across a broad sector of the economy facing sensitive reporting, compliance and ...
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In a recent social media post and television interview, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins announced that US capital markets are "poised to move on-chain.” At the same time, on December 11, 2025, the SEC staff issued a no-action letter to a prominent registered clearing agency and securities depositary to launch a securities tokenization pilot program. The pilot program will allow participants to transfer tokenized securities to registered wallets of other participants.
On November 10, 2025, Chairman John Boozman (R-MT) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee released a discussion draft of legislation regulating crypto markets in the United States. The draft is similar in several ways to the Clarity Act, which the House of Representatives passed in July 2025.
On May 29, 2025, staff in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a statement on “Certain Protocol Staking Activities.” For certain “staking” activities on blockchain networks that use proof-of-stake (“PoS”) as a consensus mechanism (“PoS Networks”), the SEC staff is of the view that such activities do not involve the offer and sale of securities under the SEC’s Howey test.
On February 27, 2025, staff in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a public statement on so-called meme coins. According to the statement, meme coins meeting certain specified conditions will not be deemed securities for purposes of the federal securities laws.
The Hunton Blockchain Blog features opinions and legal analysis as we follow the development and use of distributed ledger technology known as the blockchain.
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