US lawyer argues holding crypto for price gains is not a securities matter

Holding a cryptocurrency solely in anticipation of a price increase should not be enough to subject it to securities laws, a U.S. lawyer has argued in a submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) crypto task force. According to Cointelegraph, Teresa Goody Guillen, a lawyer specializing in crypto regulation, stated in a public letter on the SEC's website that holding a token with the simple expectation of a price rise constitutes a passive economic interest. She argued that this act alone is insufficient to meet the criteria for applying securities law and that cryptocurrencies should be evaluated more flexibly, taking a variety of factors into account. Guillen added that, as Ripple has pointed out, applying securities regulation based only on the expectation of profit confuses speculation with investor rights. Ripple previously told the SEC on Jan. 9 that considering crypto holdings as subject to securities law based on price appreciation hopes alone would be an act of regulatory overreach.