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Comment by EdwardDiego | Hacker News Reader

Why are crypto companies exempt from doing due diligence on regulatory regimes? Every other business has to know the law and comply.

And if you think the SEC isn't doing its bit by giving you guidelines, well, guess what, don't start a business in a space with such regulatory uncertainty.

Also, listen to the people who know their shit who say "Gee, that ICO sure looks like a security, be really risky doing that without regulatory clarity".

But, they did it anyway, and made a lot of money from greater fools, which is of course why they did it.

So, please stop blaming the SEC for the deliberate decisions of businesses who were motivated by mass profit, ffs.

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I'm blaming the SEC for not making clear rules and for sitting on their behinds for years letting crypto exchanges do whatever they want in the US. They have done an extremely poor job of protecting Americans from financial fraud in the crypto sector.

Who can blame the companies jumping on the profit train? If you have a drug problem in your city it does little help to blame the drug dealers, you blame the people that are supposed to arrest the drug dealers.

I sympathise with this, and part of it's down to the glacial pace of regulators (which as a consumer I find frustrating).

At the same time, for a number of years there was a lot of perceived legitimacy to a lot of crypto exchanges. Sure, there were obvious scams, but some of the bigger players were putting on a convincing "this is actually useful and beneficial to consumers" trenchcoat. I also see the perspective from the SEC of "let's not be too hasty", and to wait to see how it shook out.

In hindsight, sure. Obviously scams and they should have been shut down years ago.

The rules were always clear, it's just that crypto people didn't like them & wanted new rules specially made for them.

Crypto exchanges were always money transmitters that were required to follow KYC regulations, ICOs were always securities & needed to follow SEC regulations. And so on & on.

Using cryptography doesn't make you magically immune to regulation.

Agree on KYC (which has been done by most "legit" exchanges forever), but not on securities. Sure, most ICOs are securities, but the rules are pretty vague and there's a broad spectrum of tokens out there. Gensler still won't answer whether or not he considers Ether a security.

It's like if the DEA announced drug dealing was illegal but refused to provide specific guidance on whether Marijuana, Alcohol, or other substances were considered illegal drugs.

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