According to Dan Held, Kraken’s Chief Growth Officer, Proof-of-Work (PoW) coins have the potential to avoid being considered a security by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Coins like Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Monero (XMR)… don’t fit the SEC’s definition of a security, thus potentially avoiding the current crackdown.
In a recent lawsuit, the SEC sued Binance and Coinbase for allegedly offering some unregistered altcoins as securities. Subsequently, many of the tokens mentioned in the lawsuit were delisted by major exchanges, resulting in a sharp drop in their value.
According to Dan Held, most tokens classified as securities in the lawsuit are either Proof-of-Stake (PoS) coins or tokens that have been partially distributed prior to the official launch. This suggests that they are more centralized and have centralized ownership.
Dan Held, Kraken’s Chief Growth Officer, has reassured the community that the current crackdown is mainly carried out by the SEC and that the level of pressure on the crypto industry has not yet reached its maximum. He also emphasized that only Bitcoin and some other decentralized cryptocurrencies are likely to last in the long run, given their ability to withstand an all-out attack from the government. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, has a similar view on the existence of Bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies.