Coinbase Chief Legal Officer responds to concerns about Crypto Rating Council

The Block – In a story about the Crypto Ratings Council Tyler Gellasch, executive director at Healthy Markets and previous counsel to SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein, said it can be murky. The Council may be leaving itself open to considerable risk. “There’s a lot of complex rules around those types of things, but yet I don’t think it’s clear how they intend to address those rules and risks,” he said. “For example, what if they determine that something is very much not a security, but the SEC then makes a determination that the product is, in fact, a security? What if an investor relied on their opinion when making its investment decision?” Furthermore, Gellasch said he sees a lack of clarity on the purpose of the ratings. Gellasch said it’s unclear what the goal is. Additionally, regardless of its legal standing, there are questions of how useful the tool will be. “I see a very limited utility of this thing,” said Gellasch. “I don’t see it as being particularly relevant for the legal counsel or investment professionals at an investment firm, nor do I see regulators giving it any extra value. So the only value of this is to provide the sort of sales pitch of this is an adult asset class that you [investors] should consider.” In terms of that sales pitch, Gellasch said it isn’t very persuasive to have members of the council involved with rating assets that they have stake in.(Full Story).