Matt Levine I think put it best: if Bernie Madoff were to go to the SEC and ask them "I don't know how to run a Ponzi scheme legally, can you please update the guidelines to make it easier", of course the SEC is going to refuse. And the situation with cryptocurrencies seems to be broadly similar: there's actually a pretty clear answer as to what would need to be done to be fully above-the-board and legal, it's just not what the cryptocurrency people want, so they want the SEC to make it easier for them.
And given that we've seen exchange after exchange fail to perform basic tasks like "don't commingle customer funds," I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for cryptocurrency companies here.
And given that we've seen exchange after exchange fail to perform basic tasks like "don't commingle customer funds," I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for cryptocurrency companies here.