On October 12, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee (“SEC”) held an Investor Advisory Committee (“IAC”) meeting to consider, among other things, blockchain technology and the implications for securities markets.1 The meeting covered a broad range of topics relating to blockchain and distributed ledger technology (“DLT”), including initial coin offerings (“ICO”), post-trade processing, and decentralized applications. In the wake of the SEC’s recent enforcement action alleging that two recent ICOs were fraudulent,2 the SEC is cautiously and carefully approaching these topics in order to better capture the benefits of this new technology while avoiding the potential for fraud and abuse.
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