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ARTICLE · 12 JUNE 2023

Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Continued

Foley & Lardner LLP
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SEC complaints aren't legal judgments, but neither can they be ignored. Suing exchanges for illegal token trading forces others to reconsider the classification of those assets.

United StatesCorporate/Commercial Law
Patrick Daugherty
Patrick Daugherty
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SEC complaints aren't legal judgments, but neither can they be ignored. Suing exchanges for illegal token trading forces others to reconsider the classification of those assets. The SEC might see this as a feature of its enforcement program. To everyone else, it's a bug.

"Again the SEC claims that particular digital assets are illegally offered securities without suing their issuers, or even identifying their issuers," said Patrick Daugherty, a lawyer who once worked at the SEC but now represents crypto companies and exchanges at Foley & Lardner in Chicago. "An SEC allegation is not a judicial judgment. It is not a binding legal determination. But neither can it be ignored. The SEC knows this. By asserting that these assets are securities, the SEC is attempting to chill the market for them without having proved its case in court."

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