For years, the crypto industry has complained about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s tough stance and refusal to develop rules that take into account the different technology of blockchain. One company, however, said the SEC’s current crypto rules are fine. This attitude has paid off as a company, Prometheuswon the first license for crypto-based securities and — despite being virtually unknown in the crypto world — landed a prestigious slot in 2023 to testify before Congress about digital assets.
But now Prometheum has a problem. The election of pro-crypto Donald Trump has led SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to announce that he will step down early next year, so now the company — whose apparent track record with the regulator seemed to give it an advantage — must compete in a world out there. the rules of the crypto game are changing significantly.
Most notably, it is creating a consensus that many cryptocurrencies will do no they should be taken for granted when Trump is president. This is different from the current regulatory environment, where the SEC’s Gensler has declared every token other than Bitcoin a security, and has filed lawsuits that have forced companies to delist popular tokens like Solana and XRP. Since the election, however, companies are happy Coinbase and Robinhood has relisted those assets in anticipation of an SEC bench that will no longer treat those tokens as securities.
This is a potential problem for Prometheum, as its business model has largely been based on selling crypto-tokens as a platform. are values, and obtaining the legal infrastructure to support it.
It’s not clear where he gets the Prometheum from, which is why he’s drawn to it ridicule on crypto’s role as a role model for Gensler’s industry. Meanwhile, the company faces an incoming Congress controlled by Republican foes, including figures like Rep. John Rose (R-TN), who have been accused of ties to China. Prometheum strongly denies this allegation.
in response to the questions of luck On Prometheum’s future in a post-Gensler world, the company wrote answers from Aaron Kaplan, who shares CEO duties with his brother.
According to Kaplan, Prometheum has the opportunity to go beyond cryptography and use a first-of-its-kind license (known as Special Purpose Broker Dealer) to offer a wide range of assets including “equities, debt instruments, structured products, options, ETFs, money market funds” and more in the form of securities on a blockchain.
“We hope that President Trump’s administration will oversee this market transformation as billions of securities are issued on a blockchain, bringing the benefits that blockchain technology has long promised to market participants,” Kaplan wrote.
Others are not so sure. Matt Walsh, co-founder of crypto venture capital firm Castle Island, who has been a vocal critic of Prometheum, said luck has seen little to demonstrate that anyone is using the company’s platform for real-world trading. And as long as the financial giants like it Goldman Sachs and BlackRockNext to native crypto companies like Superstate, they are diving into traditional tokenized assets, which for now remains a very niche area of finance.
Asked whether Prometheum could point to real-world customers or other evidence of gaining traction in the market, Kaplan said the company is still in the “very early stages” and is “actively engaged in discussions with financial institutions.” “
