Two US Republican lawmakers are asking the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler to answer questions about the classification of cryptocurrency Airdrop before the end of this month.
Representative Tom Emmer and Chairman of the United States House Committee on Financial Services Patrick McHenry said in a letter to Gensler on September 17 that they were concerned after the SEC made “ Airdrop assertions” in various lawsuits over the past two years.
“The SEC is intervening and preventing American citizens from shaping the next version of the internet.”
In September 2022, the SEC sued Hydrogen Technology Corporation and its former CEO for market manipulation in “cryptocurrency securities.”
The company minted more than 11 billion Hydro Token to raise funds and distributed them as Airdrop, which the SEC called “unregistered offerings and sales of securities.”
In March 2023, the SEC sued Justin Sun and other companies, accusing them of offering and selling BitTorrent (BTT) in “unregistered monthly Airdrop to investors.”
Emmer and McHenry mentioned both cases in the letter's footnotes as examples of the SEC's approach to Airdrop.
“We are concerned that misapplication of securities laws will prevent this technology from achieving decentralization,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The future of the peer-to-peer digital economy cannot be left to the whims of Gary Gensler. Today, Patrick McHenry and I are asking the SEC to respond to their position that Airdrop are securities transactions,” said Tom Emmer.
Emmer and McHenry asked Gensler to answer five questions related to cryptocurrency Airdrop by September 30, including how “free” cryptocurrency falls under the Howey Test and how the SEC differentiates Airdrop from other rewards like credit card points.
They also asked what the impact would be on on-chain applications, economic growth, and tax revenue if Airdrop Token were classified as securities, and whether regulators would assess the impact of classifying cryptocurrencies as securities.
“By prohibiting Americans from participating in Airdrop, the SEC is preventing U.S. cryptocurrency users from fully realizing the benefits of blockchain technology,” Emmer and McHenry wrote.
“The SEC’s approach during his tenure as Chairman only ensured that the next version of the internet was not designed by Americans, which is not in the best interests of our constituents.”
This is the second time in a week that US Republican lawmakers have targeted Gensler over the way he runs the agency.
On September 10, several US Republican lawmakers questioned Gensler — a US Democrat — about whether his political leanings influenced his hiring at the SEC.
In a letter to Gensler, lawmakers including McHenry accused the agency of recruiting “individuals from left-leaning organizations to fill senior positions at the SEC.”
“If these allegations are true, the SEC is violating the Civil Service Reform Act by filling the agency with employees who possess a particular ideology, which undermines the SEC’s supposed impartiality,” they added.
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest letter.
Join Telegram: https://t.me/tapchibitcoinvn
Follow Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/tapchibtc_io
Follow Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tapchibitcoin
Minh Anh
According to Cointelegraph
