ASSET BACKED
.ETH Security Tokens
client
Company under NDA
dates
2018
categories
Product Strategy · Market Acceleration
ROLE
Product Strategy & Product Management
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study, including the name of the company. All information in this case study is my own.
Background
In late 2017, the crypto market was growing at an accelerated pace as a means of currency and blockchain as a technical alternative to centralized technology. There was a tremendous amount of hype around ICOs, Initial Coin Offerings. These ICOs were driving up the price of bitcoin and flooding the investing landscape with millions of newly mined crypto currency. This was an accelerant in the crypto/blockchain markets. The industry began to form around it with services designed to disrupt capital markets. In many ways, ICOs circumvented normal market listing structures and therefore presented a legal risk. The company believed strongly in within the financial markets to create legal, securities and tokens. I worked on a strategy involving security token issuance and fractional liquidity on blockchain, using Ethereum.
Unlock the market potential with asset-backed, fully-compliant security tokens, for capital formation and liquidity on the blockchain
To the extent that digital assets like [initial coin offerings, or ICOs] are securities — and I believe every ICO I have seen is a security — we have jurisdiction, and our federal securities laws apply.
Jay Clayton, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
[G]enerally, folks buying these tokens are anticipating profits, and there’s a small group of entrepreneurs and technologists standing up and nurturing the projects. I believe we have a crypto market now where many tokens may be unregistered securities, without required disclosures or market oversight.
Gary Gensler, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Process & Services
market & Customer Research
Conducted interviews with both sides of the marketplace focused on the problem space, interest, and trust in new systems. After identifying the pain points and researching (via interviews) secondary players in the market that were ripe for disruption, we developed a point of view on the market and a product hypothesis.
Legal FRamEWork
Due to the desire to issue securities, ongoing consultations with legal experts was required. Even using some of the best legal teams in Silicon Valley and New York, the legal teams were learning and advising along with my client. Many disruptive ideas for the marketplace were difficult to implement on a global basis. However, we were able to come up with a global strategy that worked, legally, in over 150 markets.