Former SEC attorney Teresa Goody Guillen backed Ripple’s view that speculation alone should not trigger securities laws, responding to concerns over the CLARITY Act. A response posted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force page echoed concerns raised by Ripple that speculation alone should not automatically subject cryptocurrencies to federal securities laws, as lawmakers continue debating the CLARITY Act. The response, written by former SEC attorney Teresa Goody Guillen and published Monday as public input on the SEC’s website, argued that holding a “passive economic interest,” such as buying a token in hopes its price rises, should not, by itself, trigger securities regulation. Guillen wrote that digital assets should instead be assessed using a broader set of factors applied on a sliding scale. “I agree with Ripple’s assertion that “[f]rameworks suggesting that a ‘passive economic interest’ alone could trigger securities laws mistakenly conflate speculation with investment rights ...
In October 2025, the FCA stressed that companies must hold the correct permissions and comply with strict marketing and consumer protection rules before offering crypto ETNs. Trading 212, one of Europe’s biggest online investment platforms, allowed UK retail customers to trade cryptocurrency-linked exchange-traded notes (ETNs) without having the required permission from the country’s financial regulator, according to the Financial Times. Crypto ETNs returned to the UK retail market in October 2025 after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reversed a ban imposed in 2021. The products, which track the price of digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), are structured as debentures and require specific regulatory approval to be sold to everyday investors. Still, Trading 212 offered crypto ETNs to retail clients without the required authorization until Monday, the Financial Times reported, citing the company’s entry on the FCA’s financial services register. The company reportedly applied for the additional permissio...