BlockBeats News, December 24: Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at cryptocurrency venture capital firm Variant Fund, posted on social media, stating, “The debate over tokens versus equity is just beginning. Many crypto projects were born during the era of former U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, when strong regulatory pressure forced development companies to direct almost all value toward equity rather than tokens. Today, the policy environment is changing, and new opportunities are emerging. It will take considerable time and experimentation to figure out how (or whether) tokens and equity can work well together. And this round of experimentation is starting now.
I don’t have a specific stance on Aave’s situation, but I want to emphasize one point: clarity is always paramount. Token holders must clearly understand what they actually own, what they can control, and what they cannot. The design space for token value capture is extremely vast, far greater than that of traditional equity. I believe that, for a considerable period, it is unlikely that a standardized token model will emerge like stocks. We believe tokens should carry on-chain value, while equity should carry off-chain value. The core innovation unlocked by tokens is self-sovereign ownership of digital property. Tokens enable holders to directly own and control on-chain infrastructure without relying on off-chain intermediaries.
Off-chain value, however, is different. Token holders cannot directly own or control off-chain revenue or assets, so in most cases, such value should belong to equity, not tokens. Of course, other models may also work. Some projects may choose a single-asset model with no equity at all, while others may decide to treat their tokens as tokenized securities and apply new rules that the SEC may establish for this market in the future.”
