Republican Lawmakers Seek SEC Chair Gensler’s Clarification on Crypto Airdrop Classification
Ruholamin Haqshanas is a contributing crypto writer for CryptoNews. He is a crypto and finance journalist with over four years of experience. Ruholamin has been featured in several high-profile crypto...
Top Republican lawmakers are pressing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler for clear guidelines on the treatment of crypto airdrops.
In a recent letter, House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) criticized the SEC’s handling of the crypto space, specifically targeting its approach to airdrops, a common distribution method used by blockchain startups.
The letter comes as many projects seek to avoid airdrops to U.S. citizens amid regulatory uncertainty.
The lawmakers argue that the SEC’s actions create an unfavorable regulatory environment for crypto innovation.
“By creating a hostile regulatory environment, including making assertions about airdrops in various cases and increasing warnings for additional enforcement actions, the SEC is putting its thumb on the scale and precluding American citizens from shaping the next iteration of the internet,” McHenry and Emmer wrote in their letter to Gensler.
Airdrops are a popular method for distributing free tokens to holders of digital asset wallets, but the SEC has previously indicated that these could be viewed as securities.
The agency highlighted this stance in its 2019 “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets,” suggesting that airdrops could be classified as the sale or distribution of securities.
The future of the peer-to-peer digital economy cannot be left to the authoritarian whims of @GaryGensler.
Today, @PatrickMcHenry and I are requesting answers from the SEC on
