The true costs involved with registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been laid out – around $2 million and 953 days in time spent.
As SEC chair Gary Gensler pushes for greater regulation, Fox journalist Eleanor Terrett has revealed just exactly what that means for a business wanting to comply.
Her comments were based on a conversation with an INX Group representative.
SEC Registration Process Tedious
The process for registration started in 2018, and finally, in 2020, INX Group boasted of being the first SEC-registered digital assets trading platform. Later, they announced a $117 million regulated token Initial Public Offering (IPO) in August 2020.
A similar story can be told about Polkadot (DOT) which, after a three years engagement with the SEC, morphed from a security into software. Its parent company, the Web3 foundation, was in talks with the regulatory body after a 2019 “Investment contract” framework. The framework classified all the digital assets offered and sold for fundraising purposes as a security.
Regulation by Enforcement
The SEC prefers regulation by enforcement over proper guidelines for Web3 firms. It’s worth mentioning that the top priority of the regulatory body for 2023 is to scrutinize crypto assets.
SEC chair Gary Gensler strongly believes that every digital asset other than Bitcoin is a security.
Considering the troubles from the SEC, businesses are now looking to expand to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Furthermore, the community believes companies won’t bother to “stay in the U.S. when there are so many other countries with clear regulations already in place.”