Thread by @awrigh01

As many lawyers in the space have anticipated, state regulators are beginning to get involved with token sales and #icos. Today, the Texas State Securities Board brought a C&D against BitConnect. This C&D has implications for tokens used for staking.

ssb.texas.gov/sites/default/….

By way of background, Texas has adopted the federal Howey test for purposes of anlalyzing Texas state securities laws issues. Like federal securities laws, Texas looks to the "economic realities" related to a transaction.

Thus this decision provides additional information about how regulators will view token sales. More importantly, it's our first look at how regulators will view tokens used for staking.

BitConnect was a purported virtual currency (what the CFTC has broadly described as a commodity, in the context of bitcoin) and thus presumably outside the scope of Texas state securities laws.

Nevertheless, Texas--like the SEC--found a securities law violation under its state laws, as well as related fraud claims. Texas's analysis primarily focused on the marketing materials used by the promoters of BitConnect and promises made by the promoter of profits via staking.

Some examples below

However, Texas also focused on BitConnect's failure to identify persons who developed and controlled the project.

Texas also (somewhat oddly) raised issue with the fact that the promoters, here, did not flag that the virtual currency would be in competition with other virtual currencies.

We should see more enforcement actions coming from states regulatory authorities in 2018.