SEC Commissioner calls out colleagues for ‘imprecise legal reasoning’
Hester Peirce, a commissioner with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), clapped back at her colleagues for imposing a $1.7 million fine on defi protocol BarnBridge DAO. Although I did not write a dissent (yet?), I voted against the action. It's another example of the SEC's imprecise legal reasoning in crypto cases, which only adds to the uncertainty for crypto projects in the US. — Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) December 23, 2023 BarnBridge DAO, along with its two founders — Tyler Ward and Troy Murray — agreed to settle charges that it sold structured crypto asset securities known as SMART Yield bonds. The firm agreed “to disgorge nearly $1.5 million of proceeds from the sales, and Ward and Murray each agreed to pay a $125,000 [in] civil penalties,” the SEC announced in a statement. “The use of blockchain technology for the unregistered offer and sale of structured finance products to retail investors runs afoul of the securities laws,...