WATCH: SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Talks ICOs and Bitcoin ETF

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton gave a fireside chat at Coindesk’s Consensus: Invest 2018 in New York yesterday afternoon.

(You can watch the full video of Clayton’s fireside chat above)

He touched on a number of topics relating to ICOs, the Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) approval process, and even commented on specific cryptoassets for the approximately 1,300 attendees.

In regards to Bitcoin ETF proposals, he noted that unregulated exchanges are a major factor in their denial:

SEC Chair Clayton makes it clear – untransparent and manipulated exchanges are a major factor in denial of the bitcoin ETF. #bitcoin #ConsensusInvest

— Hopium Destroyer (@davidzmorris) November 27, 2018

Clayton went on to further clarify statements that he made in the past about whether ICOs are considered securities offerings:

SEC's Jay Clayton: If you're starting a venture and funding it by selling a token, start with the assumption it's a securities offering #ConsensusInvest

— Camila Russo (@CamiRusso) November 27, 2018

Clayton solidified his stance that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities. As for Ripple? TBD…

SEC’s Jay Clayton at #ConsensusInvest:#Bitcoin a security? No.#Ether a security? No.#Ripple a security? No comment. pic.twitter.com/VfXoao8emk

— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) November 27, 2018

What is his reasoning? Bitcoin is a currency:

SEC chair Jay Clayton at #ConsensusInvest gets applause from the room after he says: "An asset like #bitcoin, we’ve determined that doesn’t have the attributes of security… it’s designed to be akin to the dollar, the yen, the euro. And it operates that way."

— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) November 27, 2018

All in all, Clayton had a positive outlook on the future of blockchain technology:

Jay Clayton, Chairman of the SEC on stage at #ConsensusInvest :

“Distributed Ledger Technology has a huge potential in the securities market.” pic.twitter.com/EABRJEMTns

— Ami Ben-David (@amibendavid) November 27, 2018