Keyword: Digital Token

The SEC’s Second No-Action Relief for Digital Tokens: Meaningful Relief or a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

Pocketful of Quarters, Inc. (PoQ) is the second-ever recipient of no-action relief from the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission for the issuance of “Quarters.” Quarters are a digital arcade token that is usable, like its conventional physical counterparts, across participating games and platforms. This no-action relief evidences a more thoughtful and sophisticated approach to the regulation of digital tokens and, in that respect, is welcome news to an industry that has been adrift since SEC Chairman Clayton’s statement in December 2017 that “[b]y and large, the structures of initial coin offerings that [he has] seen promoted involve the offer and sale of securities.” This no-action relief, though arguably unnecessary because Quarters are clearly not securities, confirms that certain classes of tokens are not subject to the requirements of the federal securities laws. Moreover, the conditions and restrictions imposed by the no-action letter on the issuance and use of Quarters are so onerous that the relief granted, while reaffirming, is not groundbreaking.

In the no-action relief, the Chief Legal Advisor to FinHub indicated that, subject to conditions, the Division would not recommend enforcement action to the Commission if PoQ offers and sells Quarters without registering the tokens as securities under Section 5 of the Securities Act and Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act. Some of the more significant conditions are:

  • The Quarters will be immediately usable for their intended purposes (gaming) at the time they are sold;
  • PoQ will restrict the transfer of Quarters through technological and contractual provisions governing the Quarters and the Quarters Platform that restrict the transfer of Quarters to PoQ or to wallets on the Quarters Platform;
  • Gamers will only be able to transfer Quarters to addresses of Developers with Approved Accounts or to PoQ in connection with participation in e-sports tournaments;
  • Only Developers and Influencers with Approved Accounts will be capable of exchanging Quarters for ETH at pre-determined exchange rates by transferring their Quarters to the Quarters Smart Contract;
  • Quarters will be made continuously available to gamers in unlimited quantities at a fixed price;
  • PoQ will market and sell Quarters to gamers solely for consumptive use as a means of accessing and interacting with Participating Games.

Considered as a whole, these conditions are so restrictive and duplicative that they raise doubt as to the necessity of the relief. For example, since Quarters will be made continuously available in unlimited quantities at a fixed price, no reasonable purchaser can expect the price of Quarters to increase and therefore cannot expect to profit from the purchase of Quarters. Accordingly, the transfer and secondary market trading restrictions are superfluous, and by highlighting them as a condition of the relief, CorpFin is effectively imposing conditions on a non-security.

Commissioner Hester Pierce raised a similar concern regarding the staff’s issuance of the first token no-action letter to TurnKey Jet, a charter jet company that sought to tokenize gift cards that could be used to charter its jet services. She stated that the offering of Turnkey tokens is so “clearly not an offer of securities that I worry the staff’s issuance of a digital token no-action letter . . . may in fact have the effect of broadening the perceived reach of our securities laws.” She continued by stating that the Turnkey no-action letter “effectively imposed conditions on a non-security.” Nevertheless, the Quarter’s no-action relief should be touted because it reestablishes the possibility of issuing a digital token that is not a security.

There are three additional aspects of PoQ’s letter requesting no-action relief that merit special attention: (i) the two-tiered token approach used by PoQ; (ii) the built-in token economics managed by a smart contract; and (iii) the condition that KYC/AML compliance reviews must be made at account initiation and on an ongoing basis.

First, Quarters are the second class of tokens that PoQ will issue, but the only one for which it sought no-action relief. PoQ conceded that the first class of tokens PoQ issued, “Q2 Tokens,” are securities, which were sold to investors through an exempt offering to raise funds to build the Quarters platform. The holders of the Q2 Tokens will benefit from the sale of Quarters by receiving, ratably, 15% of the funds collected from the sale of Quarters. This, or a similar, structure could prove beneficial to other investors that purchased tokens through an exempt offering and are now waiting for a return on their investment.

Next, the no-action relief implicitly approves the token economics of the PoQ network. According to PoQ’s letter requesting no-action relief, a portion of the funds received from the sale of Quarters will be used to compensate developers, influencers and Q2 Token holders in ETH. The funds distribution process will be managed by a smart contract. If Quarters are purchased with fiat currency, PoQ will transfer an equivalent amount of ETH to the Quarters Smart Contract upon such purchases for the purposes of such compensation.

Last, the no-action request raises, but leaves unanswered, a question pertinent to all token issuers: whether PoQ or any participant on the Quarters Platform must register with FinCEN as a money services business. Although this question is left unanswered, it appears that PoQ has built in some processes that would be required if it were a registered MSB. For example, a condition of the no-action relief states that: “to create an Approved Account, Developers and Influencers will be subject to KYC/AML checks at account initiation as well as on an ongoing basis.” In addition, the no-action request explains that purchases of Quarters through the PoQ Website “will occur via a licensed payment processor.” Similarly, purchases made through the Apple App store and Google Play store will occur via the standard payment processing solutions generally applicable to purchases made through those platforms; it is possible that this system was put in place to take advantage of one of the money transmitter exemptions such as the payment processor exemption. For the time being, however, it appears that PoQ has not registered with FinCEN; PoQ does not appear as a registered entity on FinCEN’s MSB Registrant database.

Though restrictive in its terms, the Quarters no-action relief demonstrates the SEC’s willingness to engage with token issuers and permit use of cryptocurrency outside of the SEC’s regulation, although the agency does not appear ready to give the concept free reign.

A Foreboding View of Smart Contract Developer Liability

At least one regulator is attempting to provide clarity regarding the potential liability of actors who violate regulations through the use of smart contracts. On October 16, 2018, Commissioner Brian Quintenz of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission explained his belief that smart contract developers can be held liable for aiding and abetting CFTC rule violations if it was reasonably foreseeable that U.S. persons could use the smart contract they created to violate CFTC rules. As is typical, the Commissioner spoke for himself, but it seems likely that his views reflect the CFTC’s philosophy.

Generally speaking, smart contracts are code-based, self-executing contractual provisions. Smart contracts that run on top of blockchain protocols, like ethereum, are increasingly being used by companies in a wide variety of businesses to create autonomous, decentralized applications. Some of these applications might run afoul of CFTC regulations if they have the features of swaps, futures, options, or other CFTC-regulated products, but do not comply with the requisite regulatory requirements. The fact that smart contracts support disintermediated markets – a departure from the market intermediaries traditionally regulated by the CFTC – does not change the CFTC’s ability to extend its jurisdiction to them.

To identify where culpability might lie, Commissioner Quintenz identified the parties he believes to be essential to the functioning of the smart contract blockchain ecosystem:

  1. the core developers of the blockchain software;
  2. the miners that validate transactions;
  3. the developers of the smart contract applications; and
  4. users of the smart contracts.

Commissioner Quintenz dismissed the core developers and the miners as potential culpable parties by reasoning that while they both play a vital role in creating or administering the underlying blockchain code, they have no involvement in creating the smart contracts. He also limited the possibility of the CFTC pursuing enforcement against individual users because, as he explained, although individual users are culpable for their actions, “going after users may be an unsatisfactory, ineffective course of action.”

That leaves the developers of the smart contract code. Commissioner Quintenz stated that to ascertain the culpability of the smart contract code developers, the “appropriate question is whether these code developers could reasonably foresee, at the time they created the code, that it would likely be used by U.S. persons in a manner violative of CFTC regulations.” If such a use is foreseeable, Commissioner Quintenz believes that a “strong case could be made that the code developers aided and abetted violations of CFTC regulations.”

Commissioner Quintenz expressed that he would much rather pursue engagement than enforcement, “but in the absence of engagement, enforcement is the only option.” The Commissioner recommended that smart contract developers engage and collaborate with the CFTC prior to releasing their code to ensure that the code will be compliant with the law. The Commissioner even suggested that the CFTC is willing to rethink its existing regulations or provide regulatory relief, depending on the technology in question.

As blockchain and smart contract technology matures, we expect decentralized and disintermediated applications to come to market in increasing volumes. In his speech, Commissioner Quintenz provided valuable insight into how one regulator is thinking about applying existing laws to this new market. His remarks will be especially valuable if they influence other regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, to take a similar approach.

EtherDelta Founder’s Settlement with the SEC Has Grim Implications for Smart Contract Developers

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The SEC recently brought its first enforcement action against the creator of a “decentralized” digital token trading platform for operating as an unregistered national securities exchange, and in doing so joined the CFTC in putting a scare into smart contract developers.

On November 8, 2018, the SEC issued a cease-and-desist order settling charges against Zachary Coburn, the creator of EtherDelta, an online “decentralized” digital token trading platform running on the Ethereum blockchain. The SEC charged only Coburn, the individual who founded EtherDelta, but no longer owns or operates it. Note that the SEC press release states that the investigation is continuing.

The SEC announced its action against Coburn a month after a CFTC Commissioner stated in a speech that smart contract developers could be found liable for aiding and abetting violations of commodity futures laws. Both agencies appear to be putting smart contract developers on notice that by releasing code into the ether, they are inviting potential liability for any rule violations, even if they sever their connections with the code.

The SEC found that EtherDelta provides a marketplace to bring together buyers and sellers of digital tokens. The platform facilitates these transactions through the use of a smart contract, which carries out the responsibilities generally assumed by an intermediary: the smart contract validates the order messages, confirms the terms and conditions of orders, executes paired orders, and directs the distributed ledger to be updated to reflect a trade. The SEC employed a “functional test” to determine whether EtherDelta constitutes an exchange and to hold Coburn, who “wrote and deployed the EtherDelta smart contract . . . and exercised complete and sole control over EtherDelta’s operations,” responsible. As the Chief of the SEC’s cyber unit stated in the press release, “[w]hether it’s decentralized or not, whether it’s on smart contract or not, what matters is it’s an exchange.”

EtherDelta is one example of the innovation that smart contracts can facilitate. Innovation, however, is not a substitute for compliance. Indeed, in the SEC’s press release announcing the settlement, Co-Director of Enforcement Steven Peiken acknowledged that blockchain technology is ushering in significant innovation to the securities markets, but cautioned that “to protect investors, this innovation necessitates the SEC’s thoughtful oversight of digital markets and enforcement of existing laws.”

Significantly, the SEC found that certain transactions on the platform involved digital tokens that constitute securities, but declined to identify those tokens. Senior SEC officials have previously stated that ether is not a security, but this case shows that the SEC has not reached the same determination for all tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain.