WATCH: SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's Full Consensus: Invest Interview

What do you get when you put the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in front of an audience of crypto insiders? An applause line, a word of warning and an analogy about theater tickets.

Jay Clayton took the stage Tuesday afternoon at the CoinDesk-organized Consensus: Invest conference in midtown Manhattan. In a lively conversation with investor Glenn Hutchins, Clayton shared his thoughts on what protections are still needed before the SEC issues key approvals relating to cryptocurrency trading.

Though his remarks on the SEC's determination that bitcoin does not have the attributes of a security drew applause, Clayton also delivered a quip aimed at startups funded via initial coin offerings: “Get your act together.”

He added:

“If you finance a venture with a token offering, you should start with the assumption that it is a security."

Clayton's Tuesday remarks offered hints about what lies ahead for the SEC, with the regulator ramping up recent actions against ICO startups and denying demands for an approved bitcoin ETF.

You can watch the full video of Clayton's fireside chat below:

Photo by Stan Higgins for CoinDesk