Motion: Legally speaking, tokens are more like commodities than like securities (Lewis Cohen vs. Gabriel Shapiro)

Guests:

Lewis Cohen (@NYcryptolawyer)
Gabriel Shapiro (@lex_node)

Host:

Richard Yan (@gentso09)

Today’s motion is “Legally speaking, tokens are more like commodities than like securities.”

Today’s guests are two legal experts in crypto space. One of them will argue that token transactions on the post-ICO, secondary market should for the most part be regulated like commodities and not securities. He will argue that the tokens changing hands in said capital markets do not themselves represent securities, because they don’t capture the same rights as conferred in the primary transaction. He laid out his thoughts in the paper “Ain’t Misbehavin’: An Examination of Broadway Tickets and Blockchain Tokens,” which will be included in the show notes.

And of course, the other guest vehemently disagrees on this point.

Throughout the debate, we also cover the SEC vs Kik case and Ripple’s security status.

If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.

If you would like to debate or want to nominate someone, please DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.

Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.


Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):

• Lewis Cohen's paper: "Ain’t Misbehavin’: An Examination of Broadway Tickets and Blockchain Tokens": https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3501764
• SEC vs XRP: https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-untradeable-sec-security
• SEC vs Kik: https://www.coindesk.com/kik-sec-ruling
• Lewis Cohen: https://dlxlaw.com/who-we-are
• Gabe Shapiro blog: https://lex-node.medium.com/

Debater bios:

Lewis is co-founder of the New York based DLX law firm. His main focus is blockchain, tokenization, and other new capital raising techniques and structures. He was previously a partner at two of the Global 25 law firms, and his practices included securitization and other complex structured financings.

Gabe is partner of the San Francisco based law firm Belcher, Smolen & Van Loo LLP. He has published several pieces diving deep into US Securities Law, in which he shares his vision and philosophy for how Tokenized Networks should be regulated. His specialty also includes M&A transactions for high tech corporate clients.