October 2018 Bar Bulletin
By David M. Otto and Andrea K. Louie
(Second of Two Parts)
Editor’s Note: Picking up from last month’s issue, the authors continue their discussion of the SEC’s guidance with respect to whether the issuance of cryptographic tokens (“cryptocurrency”) constitutes the issuance of a security.
December 2017 – Chairman Clayton’sFirst Statement (“Clayton 1”)
In a public statement on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) on December 11, 2017,1SEC Chairman Jay Clayton gave an example of an ICO that would likely not implicate securities laws. This example describes a book-of-the-month club ICO where the club operators create an efficient way to...

