“Regulatory clarity” is largely a euphemism, though there is some literal truth to it. I think it is crystal, crystal, crystal clear that … the SEC’s answer to Coinbase’s question of “okay well how do we comply with the law and operate a US crypto exchange that is registered with the SEC?” is “hahaha you don’t, get outta here, enjoy England.”
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But the biggest uncertainty is, like, is this it? Is the SEC’s current posture the final answer on US crypto regulation? If we assume that the SEC is going to be maximally aggressive about, not “regulating” crypto, but cracking down on crypto, and if we assume that the SEC will win in court because it has a pretty strong case under existing law, then the basic path for crypto in the US is “it’s going to be more or less illegal to raise money for a crypto project, or to offer a new crypto token widely, or to operate a crypto exchange that trades anything other than Bitcoin and Ether.” It will take some time to get there, since the SEC moves kinda slowly and the courts move even more slowly and crypto people seem very committed to this bit of complaining about “regulatory uncertainty” rather than “the regulators are clearly and fully committed to stamping us out.” But the long-term path that we are currently on is pretty clear.
Source: Coinbase – Bloomberg
