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SEC Makes ICO Token Sales More Inclusive, Not Enough For SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has modernized its definition of an accredited investor to now consider not just an individual’s wealth, but their education to qualify for investing in cryptocurrency ICOs, as well as mainstream capital market offerings.

The US SEC has broadened its definition of “accredited investors” that qualify to take part in token sales of Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs) to include the consideration of a person’s education not just their net worth. Pro-crypto and blockchain SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce believes that the definition needs to be made even more inclusive and extended to “mom and pop” retail investors.

According official release on Aug. 26, the SEC’s new amendments to the definition are part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to “simplify, harmonize, and improve the exempt” offering framework creating more inclusion and opportunity while “maintaining appropriate investor protections and promoting capital formation.”

Under the old “accredited investor” definition, individual investors who did not meet specific standard of wealth “regardless of their financial sophistication”, have been denied the opportunity to invest in the United States’ multifaceted and vast private markets. The new definition applies to all capital market offering not just cryptocurrency token sale ICOs, and will also include native American and Tribal government entities.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said:

“For the first time, individuals will be permitted to participate in our private capital markets not only based on their income or net worth, but also based on established, clear measures of financial sophistication.”

While the rules for investment in capital markets and tokens sales of ICOs have become more inclusive, a document from the SEC states that they do not expect the number of eligible investors to increase significantly.

Crypto Mom Peirce Wants More Inclusion

Newly re-confirmed SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who is known for her forward thinking when it comes to regulation on innovation—thinks the new definition is not inclusive enough.

In a Tweet following the announcement, Peirce wrote:

“Americans shouldn’t have to ask the SEC for permission to invest, but today’s accredited investor rule at least offers people a path to ask permission based on their education rather than simply telling them ‘no, unless you’re rich.’“

Bahamas Looks to Deploy its CBDC The Sand Dollar Across Borders

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) has revealed an ambitious use case for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) ahead of the national roll-out on October 20. The CBDC has been dubbed the Sand Dollar.

Sand Dollar To Find Relevance Across Borders

Speaking at an organized virtual presentation by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation for businesses ahead of the Sand Dollar rollout, CBOB’s Bobby Chen, assistant manager of electronic solutions said that plans are in place to aid the integration of the Sand Dollars with other global currencies.

Referring to the Sand Dollars, Chen noted:

“At the moment, it is currently only used in a domestic setting, but eventually we are working on a solution that will make it interoperable with other global currencies.”

Other emphases have also been pointed out to highlight the unique functionalities of the Sand Dollars which will aid it in its proposed proposition to permeate the Bahamian economy.

CBOB Head of Banking Cleopatra Davis said:

“Some of the central strategies around Sand Dollar is the API card-less onboarding. This became extremely important during the time of COVID-19 because we realized it’s not business as we know it prior to COVID-19. Mobility and face-to-face may not be as easily accessible […] through the API card-less onboarding you’re going to be able to have access to Sand Dollar without physically entering a business place to do so.”

In order to meet with the environmental hazards prevalent in the Bahamas including Hurricane Dorian, the Sand Dollars has also been designed to have offline functionalities.

Bahamas May Be The First to Launch a Legal Tender CBDC

Should the Central Bank of the Bahamas meet up with it’s scheduled plan to roll out the Sand Dollars this month, Bahamas will rank as the first country to launch a CBDC that can be categorized as a legal tender.

The Bank of Lithuania earlier launched a blockchain-based digital collector’s coin dubbed LBCoins as part of its test for its soon to be launched CBDC.

Human Rights Foundation Chief Strategy Officer: Bitcoin Saves Lives, Increases Freedom and Gives Hope

Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation has blasted a financial correspondent who called Bitcoin the “perfect Ponzi”—explaining that millions of people rely on BTC crypto every day for greater financial access.

Bitcoin has recently surged above the $24,000 level and recorded a new all-time high. Breaking past its resistance level at $24K, Bitcoin managed to reach over $24,200, but has now consolidated slightly. Bitcoin is now trading slightly lower, at $23,833 at press time.

In the past week, the Bitcoin price has surged over 25% prompting one financial correspondent named Felix Salmon to refer to the cryptocurrency once again as nothing more than a speculative asset and a “perfect Ponzi.” Gladstein particular issue responding with a link to a Nigerian article declaring Bitcoin’s role in overtaking Fiat and stating:

“Yet another $/€/£ privileged Western journalist, blind to the fact that millions globally rely on Bitcoin to escape high inflation, extortionate remittances, frozen accounts, sanctions, financial isolation.”

Not won over by the link, Salmon challenged the Human Rights Foundation CSO to provide further empirical evidence that Bitcoin was being leveraged in such ways—a challenge that Gladstein was happy to take on. He tweeted:

“I’ll give you a few now. For starters BYSOL, a grassroots Belarusian human rights org, has moved more than $500k of value peer-to-peer to striking workers inside Belarus, in a way the regime can’t stop. Activists or protestors normally get their bank accounts frozen.”

In what must have been an overwhelming response for Salmon, who seemed to disappear from the conversation as the list, of Bitcoin’s real-world utility and ability to facilitate social and financial freedom grew—Gladstein went on to site how Hong Kong citizens were using Bitcoin to escape excessive financial regulation, and raise funds for peaceful demonstrations, the countless cases of Venezuelans fleeing to other countries transporting their wealth via Bitcoin and how Iranian’s are leveraging Bitcoin for financial inclusion as they are shut off and sanctioned away from the global financial system.

Salmon grew silent as Gladstein gave several more examples of Bitcoin’s importance to certain developing and isolated communities around the world which drew the praise of Morgan Creek Digital Assets founder Anthony Pompliano.

Pompliano voiced his support for Gladstein and his well-supported arguments on Bitcoin’s intrinsic value and utility.

Pompliano linked the discussion thread between Gladstein and Salmon and added his support for the CSO’s argument. He tweeted:

“Bitcoin is the single most important piece of technology that has been created in the last few decades. It is saving lives, increasing freedom, and giving millions of people hope around the world.”