The founder of BlockTower Capital said that the Securities Exchange Commission's action against venture capital means that the agency is expanding its crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Ari Paul, the agency's chief investment officer, also said on the Unchained podcast on Wednesday that the SEC has launched "a series of investigations into venture capital firms as unregistered securities dealers." The discount token transactions that some venture capital firms have made with cryptocurrency projects have made them violate the regulator's strict securities laws. This development will mark the latest escalation in the Securities Exchange Commission's crackdown on the digital asset industry.