SEC's First Crypto 'No-Action' Letter Took 11 Months to Secure

James Prescott Curry is the lawyer who worked with TurnKey Jet to get the SEC's assurance that it won't take regulatory action against the startup.

In announcing its decision April 3, the SEC references a letter from Curry dated April 2.

As Curry explained to CoinDesk today, yesterday's letter was probably the 10th version he'd written.

In addition to multiple versions of the letter, Curry estimated he probably took as many as 50 phone calls with SEC agency staff, largely beginning in the fall of last year.

The longer calls are referred to by staff as "Comment calls." The first one began the iterative process between TurnKey and the SEC in October, Curry said.

Despite all the contact, Curry said, the company was not sure it would attain relief until the SEC's letter came out this morning.

"The no-action letter sets forth the conditions that the issuer would abide by in order to secure that no-action relief. It doesn't bind the Commission, but it's a pretty strong letter to have."

If there's no money paid, they don't go, Curry explained.

The limitations presented by traditional banking moved the company to look for another option via the SEC. Curry said that very little changed from the first letter to now, in terms of the facts.

Curry discussed the benefits of a blockchain to the business in detail on the second page of his latest letter, but he also drew attention to Pages 10 and 11 of the SEC's new distributed ledger guidance document, which describes an online retailer offering crypto-based store credit.