<p>In a keynote address before the American Bar Association on July 21, Chairman Gary Gensler of the Securities and Exchange Commission reminded the audience that a number of creative token-based securities still need to report to the commission. </p> <p>Gensler's remarks were broadly focused on security-based swaps, regulation for which saw a dramatic overhaul following the Dodd-Frank Act, during the time when Gensler was chairing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.</p> <p>"There are initiatives by a number of platforms to offer crypto tokens or other products that are priced off of the value of securities and operate like derivatives," said Gensler. He continued: </p> <blockquote> <p>"Make no mistake: It doesn’t matter whether it’s a stock token, a stable value token backed by securities, or any other virtual product that provides synthetic exposure to underlying securities. These platforms — whether in the decentralized or centralized finance space — are implicated by the securities laws and must work within our securities regime."</p> </blockquote> <p>Global synthetic securities have been a popular application of crypto technology, allowing global users to access otherwise off-limits investments, especially those in the United States. Last year, the SEC and CFTC <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/71361/crypto-app-abra-sec-cftc">settled charges against Abra</a> for offering these kinds of swaps without checking the kinds of users who were accessing them.</p> <p>It may be this sort of case that Gensler alluded to when saying: "We’ve brought some cases involving retail offerings of security-based swaps; unfortunately, there may be more."</p> <p>It was only this week that <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/111661/binance-ceases-stock-tokens-trading">crypto exchange Binance announced</a> that it would be delisting these types of tokens globally. At the time, Michael Kott, CEO of CM-Equity — a 19-year-old German financial services firm through which Binance offered the service— <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/111684/binance-stock-tokens-cm-equity-ceo-comments">told The Block</a> that “nobody forced” Binance to stop the offering. Binance also said, "we believe shifting our commercial focus to other product offerings will better serve our users."</p>