SEC Cyber Chief Puts A New Type Of Cryptocurrency Exchange On Notice

Cryptocurrency exchanges, be warned. There’s no out-innovating the regulatory reach of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Clarifying an announcement yesterday that the SEC is in the middle of its first ever case against a cryptocurrency exchange running on the ethereum blockchain, the chief of the SEC’s newly created cyber unit, Robert Cohn, exclusively told Forbes that using any blockchain to create an exchange without central operations doesn’t remove the original creator’s responsibility.

As similar decentralized exchanges are being launched with increasing ease, and frequency, the warning shows how serious the SEC is about taming the cryptocurrency Wild West, and the semantics used to bolster it.

“The focus is not on the label you put on something or the technology you’re using,” says Cohen. “The focus is on the function, and what the platform is doing. Whether it’s decentralized or not, whether it’s on a smart contract or…