Crypto Firm & SEC Chair Say Rules For Initial Coin Offerings Are Absolutely Not Clear

A cryptocurrency trading company and the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission disagree on how strict regulators should be in issuing rules for initial coin offerings (ICOs).

The SEC has been investigating whether coins issued with an ICO should be considered securities, which will need approval before they can be sold on the public market. But the agency has yet to announce the proposed rules or their intended implementation timeline.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said he expects final regulations to be in place by March 2019.

Without a doubt, we have a lot of work to do, Clayton said in the interview. We are working very diligently.

But Richard Ma, managing director of Liquid 2 Ventures LLC, a crypto trading firm based in Hong Kong, told CNBC that he doesn't think those rules will happen anytime soon.

It's not clear what the rules will look like. I think there's some confusion about how things will work, Ma said.