Davis Polk partner Robert Cohen appeared on the Unchained podcast to share his thoughts on the SEC’s naming of tokens as securities in a number of recent lawsuits against cryptocurrency exchanges.

Robert explained, “When the SEC says that a token is a security and was not registered, they seem to at least be implying that something wrong happened there – not only by the defendants in that case, but they are at least casting some negative suggestion on the people who were involved in that token in the first place.”

“It is having a real impact on real people and real businesses. And it’s unfair,” he said, noting that the businesses and people named in the government’s complaints are unable to defend themselves because they are not parties to the lawsuits.

“This may never get decided. These tokens get named in a complaint, but these complaints may never actually go to trial. They might get settled. They might get dismissed for other reasons. There are all kinds of reasons why there may never actually be a decision on whether that token is a security,” Robert said.  

“Why a Former SEC Chief Is Calling the Agency’s Method in Recent Lawsuits ‘Not Fair,’” Unchained podcast (June 8, 2023)

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