CDC Files Amicus Brief Regarding SEC/Telegram Case

The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC), a trade association focusing on digital assets, has recently filed an amicus brief. The amicus brief filed for the court case happening between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the encrypted messenger platform, Telegram.

Voices Of The Non-Involved

An amicus brief is a legal document that can be filed by way of non-litigants. With this, these non-litigants are capable of voicing their opinions in regards to an ongoing court case. This is done in order for the Court to consider the information within. This amicus brief, in particular, was authored by one Lilya Tessler, who did it on the CDC’s behalf. Tessler is a partner of the CDC and head of Sidley Austin LLP’s New York arm.

Another trade association aptly named the Blockchain Association, made a similar filing on the 21st of January. This filing made its support for Telegram very clear. The brief sent by the association explicitly opposed the SEC in its move to stop Telegram from delivering its Gram crypto tokens to the early investors that took part in the Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The argument that the Blockchain Association put forward was that Telegram, while not officially registered, had designed itself to comply with the SEC’s rules of securities fully.

Further Clarity Needed

The CDC’s filing had put an array of arguments forth as to how the New York Southern District Court should handle and view digital assets as a whole. One of the first recommendations is an urge to the judiciary to clearly define the differences between the terms “digital asset” and the securities transactions associated with it.

As it stands now, the US legislation doesn’t really clarify some things regarding crucial several subject matters. One of these matters is whether or not this investment contract that digital assets offer, is subject to a securities transaction as well. Another critical problem is whether or not a digital asset’s investment contract must be considered a commodity, capable of being sold via a traditional commercial transaction.

Modern Inventions Require Modern Laws

The CDC is pushing a policy that digital assets as a whole should be reviewed case-by-case instead of trying to blanket-judge it in its entirety. Furthermore, the CDC urges the use of regulatory policies that have been established more recently, rather than laws set back in the 1940s.

Anti Danilevski, the founder and CEO of the Kick Ecosystem, pointed out that the CDC isn’t pushing for a framework that would benefit the association itself. Instead, the CDC is pushing for a structure that would be uniformly used across all forms of digital assets. This would ensure that these cases, as the SEC vs. Telegram, wouldn’t happen in the future.