On October 17, 2018, Alan Cohn participated in a panel discussion with Daniel Alter of Murphy & McGonigle and Scott Kimpel of Hunton Andrews Kurthen titled “Initial Coin Offerings: Can Securities Regulators Balance Market Growth and Investor Protection?” at the Washington Legal Foundation. Cohn lay the foundation for an in depth discussion on cryptocurrency and regulators approach to balancing market growth and investor protection. Cohn explained that there are a number of overlapping and interlocking regulatory structures that apply to this area of the law. To explain this concept, Cohn pointed to four regulatory lenses that apply to cryptocurrency and crypto-tokens: (1) currency regulation; (2) securities law; (3) commodities law; and (4) taxation. Mr. Alter and Mr. Kimpel highlighted principle actions taken by federal and state agencies to date and discussed how these agencies can evolve transparently to create balanced regulation.
A recording of the panel discussion can be found here.