John Deaton Calls Out Former SEC Official Over Remarks That Token Buybacks Qualify as Securities

Amanda Fischer, who used to be the SEC’s Chief of Staff, recently that purchasebacks done through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), like Uniswap, could be considered securities transactions.

She based her claim on guidance from 2017. She stressed that laws backed by major crypto companies do not allow for token dividends or purchasebacks, which may assist token holders make money.​

Fischer’s comments have caused a lot of anger among crypto legal experts, who say that the rules are still unclear on the matter. Even while platforms like Uniswap, Aave, and Lido are still purchaseing back tokens, the SEC doesn’t have an official designation for these kinds of activity yet.​

Deaton’s Response: Criticism and Context

John Deaton promptly to Fischer’s argument, pointing out how the SEC has been inconsistent in its messaging and enforcement in the past. He said that the 2017 direction Fisher talked about led to dozens of enforcement actions, but that SEC executives’ later pronouncements gave clearer guidance that was continually changing. 

Deaton talked about the 2019 clarifications made by then-Chair Jay Clayton and more current views from the Trump administration that imply most tokens don’t meet the requirements to be classified as securities.​

Deaton also talked about Fischer’s advice to the SEC during the Biden administration to sue Ripple Labs, which didn’t work out in the end because was never classified as a security. Judge Analisa Torres made a large decision: only secondary sales of the token to institutional investors constituted as securities transactions, not the token itself.​

SEC Enforcement and Changing Regulatory Tides

As the SEC looks at how it enforces digital assets, the argument over token purchasebacks is still going on. Deaton said that most of the SEC’s efforts against crypto-related companies during the Biden administration were undone under Trump. This left only a few situations, such as direct institutional sales of XRP, open to investigation.​

Other crypto lawyers, such as , the former CIO of Uniswap, also became involved. They questioned Fischer’s position by asking why the SEC lost significant cases in court if the law was so clear.​

As and DeFi protocols conduct purchasebacks to increase the value of tokens, the primary question remains whether these actions constitute securities transactions.

According to Deaton and other experts, there is a legal consensus that the SEC needs to give more formal guidance, and this is likely to be written into law as Congress moves forward with new market structure legislation.​

Unresolved Questions and Future Outlook

Without clear guidelines from the SEC, those in the crypto market are waiting for more explicit rules from regulators.

Hayden Adams, the CEO of , is a key leader of the platform. He stated that current purchaseback options are based on the assumption that regulatory conditions are favorable. This illustrates the industry’s sensitivity to policy changes.​

Deaton’s public criticism of Fischer and other former SEC officials effectively argues for clearer legal standards, suggesting that outdated narratives about how the SEC enforces the law should not dictate how tokens are managed in the going forward.