The SEC Chair: Prices manipulation needs to be addressed before Crypto ETF approval

"How that [manipulation] issue gets addressed, I don't have a particular path. But it needs to be addressed" before an ETF gets approved, said Jay Clayton, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"The prices retail investors are seeing are the prices they should rely on, and free from manipulation – not free from volatility, but free from manipulation"

Speaking on this issue, Clayton also noted that he speaks personally on his own behalf, and not on behalf of the department, he heads.

He also clarified whether the sale of tokens with the help of ICO is a distribution of securities.

"If you finance a venture with a token offering, you should start with the assumption that it is a security," the SEC chair explained.

However, he noted that the determination of the status of the token is not unique in all cases. Speaking about the Ripple cryptocurrency startup and its XRP token, he said that "in some cases more information is needed," but he did not go into details.

But still, in his opinion, most often the answer is obvious.

"I'm selling you my token, I'm going to go off and produce a venture and, hopefully, you'll get a return for having purchased that token," he explained.

The chair of the regulatory agency also commented on the situation regarding the two ICOs, which the regulator ordered to register digital tokens as securities.

"People should understand that this was the remedy in this particular case but remedies in future cases may be different," said Clayton, adding: "Get your act together."

Earlier, Clayton explained the ICO classification. In April, he gave an example of a "token for laundry", with which you can pay for laundry services, in connection with which the coin cannot be classified as a security.

"But if I have a set of 10 laundry tokens and the laundromats are to be developed and those are offered to me as something I can use for the future and I'm buying them because I can sell them to next year's incoming class, that's a security," he said before.

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