> Securities laws were specifically designed to protect individual investors, based on the idea that they “can’t fend for themselves,” James Carlson, a New York University adjunct securities regulation professor, told me today. By the same token ... “big institutional investors don’t need the protections of the securities laws. … This effectively stands that philosophy on its head,” he said.

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> The implications of this part of the ruling are worrisome. As Carlson said, “The potential for bucket shop or boiler room fraud … is alarming.” Carlson painted a scenario where a crypto firm issues tokens to heavyweight institutional traders, who get detailed disclosures required by securities laws, but they then flip it to individual traders, who don’t get those disclosures.

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