Prominent billionaire and tech mogul Mark Cuban has drawn attention to the recent regulatory storm surrounding the cryptocurrency industry, shedding light on the SEC’s alleged hypocrisy in its approach. He specifically addressed the regulator’s proposal to enforce transparency in the securities lending market, highlighting the contrast between its treatment of traditional stock loans and cryptocurrency assets.
Cuban emphasized the SEC’s differentiation in labeling stock loans as “opaque” and pushing for transparency, without classifying them as securities or taking legal action against established players in the stock loan departments of brokers and banks. He called upon the SEC to follow a similar approach with crypto, suggesting a thorough evaluation to determine which aspects should be classified as securities and the most effective means of regulating the industry to safeguard investors.
In a conversation with a pro-crypto lawyer and advocate for XRP holders John Deaton, the tech mogul also proposed a simple test to determine if a token should be considered a security.
Exactly Mark. Some call it the Bahamas Test. If the organization/entity that offered (minted/mined) the token were to pick up and move to the Bahamas, never to be heard from again, or do anything further with the project, would the token survive? If it would, not a security.
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) June 9, 2023
Interestingly, the recent actions by the SEC have adversely affected Cardano’s native token, ADA. Labeled as a security, ADA has now been delisted from Robinhood, a popular trading platform.
This development is intriguing considering that Cuban previously stated that Cardano had minimal impact on the industry. In fact, the billionaire believes that Dogecoin, often seen as a meme cryptocurrency, holds more potential in the realm of smart contracts than Cardano.
