The Wall Street Journalâs editorial board criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an editorial for causing âconfusionâ over its approach to cryptocurrency.
Regulators are âcreating dangerâ for retail investors, as exemplified by the SECâs lawsuit against Ripple over its alleged issuance of native currency XRP as an unregistered security, according to the WSJ.
The findings in this case âhave highlighted the inconsistency of the SECâs approach,â in not treating bitcoin and ether as securities, for example.
Something of a watershed in the case emerged April 7 when Ripple was granted access to the SECâs internal communications on how it determined whether a crypto is a security.
Exemptions had been announced previously for bitcoin and ether by the SEC through statements from former Chairman Jay Clayton, âwith no formal rule-making,â according to the editorial.
This suggests that the SEC has not set clear rules about which currencies it feels it should regulate and which it does not.
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âThis confusion poses risks for investors,â the editorial says, which threatens to derail the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency as represented by Coinbaseâs $86 billion public offering last week.