Preview of Today's SEC Meeting on Harmonizing Securities Exemptions

The second of these is scheduled to start at 1:00 PM EST and will deal with the SEC's earlier request for comment on harmonization of securities exemptions.

The trouble with exemptionsThe current schema of exemptions is overgrown, with the adoption of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 adding complications that are still being threshed out.

The act legalized crowdfunding from non-accredited investors and expanded the exemptions listed under Regulation A, the updated version of which is often called Regulation A+.While the intention behind the JOBS act was to make capital formation simpler for early-stage businesses by saving them from the reporting duties of larger initial public offerings, the result can be tricky to navigate.

In the crypto space, many initial coin offerings have sought to qualify under SEC exemptions, particularly Form D. 2018, in particular, saw a massive rise in such exemptions.

A simplification of U.S. securities offering exemptions would have major implications for crypto companies in general and ICOs in particular.

One argument is that exemptions permit companies to operate without accountability to their investors, while another says that they help businesses grow and open up opportunities to investors.

Hanks elaborated that the timeline in which crowdfunding exemptions came into play and Regulation A exemptions were expanded meant that many companies were using the updated Reg.

A to file crowdfunding exemptions - a legal workaround that ended up working.

Hanks' experience of the SEC's work to expand exemptions had largely been positive, and her letter to the SEC in advance of today's meeting indicates optimism that these exemptions allow main-street investors to build wealth.

From the opposite side of the spectrum, a speaker like Tyler Gellasch, executive director of Healthy Markets, expressed opposition to the number of exemptions in general.