Well, I didn't know if it was a scare tactic, a note that they couldn't regulate it, or a prelude to them trying to regulate it, based on "consumers losing money".
-wraith808
I dunno. I just think it's a common sense statement. There's not really anything else the SEC can do, due to the uncensorable nature of cryptocurrencies. Even if they try to regulate cryptocurrencies, it kind of can't be done. If someone is determined to buy or sell crypto, there's nothing a law or regulation can do to prevent that or even make it especially difficult for someone to do.
A lot of people are used to being able to appeal to their banks or governments to recover funds in case of fraud. So I suppose it makes sense for an organization whose purpose (or one of their purposes) is to protect people from being scammed financially to say "watch out about cryptocurrencies, because we can't do anything about them." That is, if you lose all your money in a cryptocurrency scam, there's no way for any government authority to seize the crypto and return it (if the scammer has properly safeguarded their private key(s) and refuses to cooperate). Having organizations who can help protect/prevent/recover funds and regulations over things like this is definitely a convenience, but it comes at the cost of not truly owning your money. That is, it requires you to give up some of your freedoms over your money. The same bank/government that can help you recover your defrauded funds can also freeze your account(s), seize all your money, refuse to allow you to send money to people they don't like, not allow you to send/receive money because it's 3 AM or a weekend/holiday, etc.
Crypto grants you a lot of freedom over your own money, but it also comes at a cost of much greater personal responsibility to safeguard it and not be so careless with it. But I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here.
