After three and a half years of experiencing the ICO, STO, and DeFi frenzy, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Jay Clayton will step down at the end of this year.

In May 2017, under the nomination of the current U.S. President Trump, Jay Clayton officially took office as the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In November 2020, Jay Clayton announced that he would step down at the end of the year, concluding his three-and-a-half-year term.

In May 2017, under the nomination of the current U.S. President Trump, Jay Clayton officially took office as the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In November 2020, Jay Clayton announced that he would step down at the end of the year, concluding his three and a half year term.

During Jay Clayton's tenure, the cryptocurrency market experienced its most fervent period of fundraising. Issues such as "Whether ICOs should be subject to securities laws" and "Whether Ethereum is a security or a commodity" were among the most frequently asked cryptocurrency regulatory questions. Cryptocurrencies were further classified into security tokens, utility tokens, payment tokens, etc., to distinguish their attributes. Currently, both Bitcoin and Ethereum are considered commodities.

In his resignation announcement, it was stated that in 2017, many ICOs emerged, and despite being a nascent financial field, there were also many scams. Under Jay Clayton's leadership, many scams and entities violating securities laws were targeted.

One of the most well-known cases was Telegram's nearly $1.7 billion ICO project: TON, which was penalized by the SEC for illegally selling unregistered securities. Telegram was fined $18.5 million and prohibited from issuing tokens within three years. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, emphasized in Telegram's channel that Telegram pledged to refund the remaining funds to investors.

Due to the impact of ICOs, fundraising laws were also amended during Jay Clayton's tenure, significantly relaxing fundraising limits: "SEC Makes Major Amendments, Eases Fundraising Limits, Simplifies Securities Issuance Exemptions".

In addition to ICOs, "Bitcoin ETFs" between 2018 and 2019 were highly anticipated for their potential to attract traditional investors. The SEC sought public opinions multiple times, rejected product applications from institutions like VanEck, and has yet to approve them, causing this topic to gradually lose momentum.

It is anticipated that the incoming President Biden will have the nomination authority for the next SEC Chairman, and whether there will be more proactive actions in related regulations remains to be seen.