Ripple (XRPUSD)

[europa7]

Pushing for Crypto Self-Regulation Amid Tightening Government Scrutiny
https://cointelegraph.com/news/pushing-for-crypto-self-regulation-amid-tightening-government-scrutiny

interesting...

SROs in the U.K. and U.S. (self-regulated organizations (SROs))

Crypto stakeholders in the United Kingdom also joined Asian countries in pioneering self-regulation for the industry in early 2018. Formed in February 2018, CryptoUK is the first-ever self-regulating trade body for cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase, CEX.IO, eToro and other major crypto businesses came together to form the association. With the U.K. having no cryptocurrency regulations, CryptoUK has sought to lobby members of Parliament to create favorable laws for the local crypto industry.

In the United States, crypto exchange and custody giants like Coinbase, Bittrex and Kraken established the Crypto Rating Council (CRC) in the end of September 2019. The CRC is an independent body that provides insight on whether crypto tokens can be classified as securities or not.

In its maiden crypto ratings, the CRC examined 20 different cryptocurrencies. For example, the council classified the likes of Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Monero (XMR) as not securities.

Related: Crypto Rating Council Is Out to Help Change US Regulatory Landscape

Again, the CRC is another example of a country-based SRO focusing on a major pain point of its local crypto scene. In the U.S., exchanges have to carefully navigate unclear regulations about which crypto tokens constitute securities.

Given that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has consistently maintained that most ICO tokens are securities, some U.S. platforms have been forced to geofence certain tokens or create separate local exchanges that list only tokens deemed not to be securities.

Before the CRC, U.S. crypto exchange platform Gemini proposed the formation of an SRO for digital commodities. According to a Gemini published post from March 2018, the Virtual Commodity Association (VCA) would only focus on nonsecurity crypto tokens. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, three other platforms — Bittrex, Bitstamp, and bitFlyer USA — joined Gemini in establishing the VCA.

In the past, several commentators have called on the crypto industry to pursue self-regulation. Even members of regulatory agencies like “crypto mom” Hester Peirce of the SEC and Brian Quintenz of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have stated in the past that crypto businesses should develop modalities for self-regulation.