On the 27th of Dec 2022, David Hoffman of TrustlessState, came on Twitter to share his viewpoint that 99% of the assets produced in the crypto industry are securities.
99% of assets produced by the crypto industry are securities
— DavidHoffman.eth/acc🦇🔊 (@TrustlessState) December 27, 2022
With the actions of the SEC and CFTC suing crypto projects to increase their jurisdiction over the crypto space, many crypto enthusiasts are reluctant to admit that crypto assets are securities due to fear.
According to David Hoffman, the crypto space was built not to enrich its users but to provide freedom and escape from the shackles of centralized institutions prone to keeping them hostage. This is why in his opinion, and supported by the Howie test, 99% of assets released by crypto projects are securities in nature.
He believes that BTC, ETH after the genesis block, anything CCO, and anything from Larva Lab shouldn’t be considered securities.
Yet, this is fine. The assets produced are required to have some qualities of securities for them to be valuable, we don’t want them under the control of government regulatory bodies like the SEC, and under certain situations, there should be different regulatory policies that wouldn’t treat a cat NFT and a utility token with a road map, and a signed contract as the same type of investment.
According to ardent users of the crypto industry, nobody should be interested in whether the crypto assets are classified as securities or not. The state should not be allowed to classify privately held assets however they feel. If these assets were taken outside the context of the state and its rules, it wouldn’t matter what their classification is.
The aim is to build a future without nanny states and regulatory gatekeepers, ushering in a period of free markets and intelligent interactions.
We can argue about the merits of this claim; the specific attributes of any given asset.
The better question, though, is why a free and sovereign people should care. https://t.co/K5lDSRNgIh
— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) December 27, 2022
Erik Voorhees, the founder of Shapeshift, believes that David’s sentiment can be argued against, if the specific attributes of each project token and utility coin are highlighted. Yet the focus should be on why such a classification is relevant.
Based on his tweets, his opinion is simple. There is no reason each project shouldn’t publish a disclaimer explaining to users the dangers associated with using their project and educating their users about the potential risks of the crypto space. But knowing that monopoly is bad, why should the government have complete control of money?
If the SEC successfully labels crypto assets as securities, how many crypto projects would be illegal according to the law?
