Post by Andreah on Mar 3, 2023 3:05:11 GMT -5
There was a time in 2022 when it looked like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might pull back from its shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach to crypto regulation. After months of aggressively pursuing and investigating crypto exchanges for allegedly breaching existing securities law in the U.S. at the behest of crypto-critic and SEC Chair Gary Gensler, at least one of the regulatory body’s commissioners expressed discontent with how Gensler was wielding the organization’s mandate.
While speaking to nft now in the summer of 2022, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce made clear her view that the body should be working with crypto exchanges collaboratively rather than just punitively. “I would say that 2022 is the year of setting the basis for future legislative and regulatory activity,” she said, somewhat hopefully.
But after the fall of FTX, crypto advocates and skeptics have come together to recognize that — however it happens — something needs to change regarding Web3 oversight. If 2022 was a time for setting the basis of regulatory activity in the crypto industry, you’d think 2023 would kick that activity into overdrive. But lawmakers are taking a moment to step back from enacting such legislation. And they’re right to do so.
First, it would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not the SEC, jurisdiction over Bitcoin, Ethereum, and likely other cryptocurrencies. The two bodies have increasingly sparred with one another over a central question: are digital assets like cryptocurrencies commodities or securities? If classified as the former, they’d likely fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. And while CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam has asserted that the perception of the organization being a more lax regulator of the industry is an illusion, a few of the provisions stipulated (in at least some versions of the DCCPA) indicate otherwise.
According to The Wall Street Journal, while at least some versions of the proposed bill maintain the SEC’s ability to go after exchanges that list tokens that meet its definition of a security, the legislation would give exchanges themselves first-instance deferral to determine whether or not a particular listed token was a security or a commodity. Though it wouldn’t give the exchanges the final say in doing so, it would allow them some authority in determining this crucial legal issue, which is far more leeway than they’d likely be given if brought under the official jurisdiction of the SEC.
While speaking to nft now in the summer of 2022, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce made clear her view that the body should be working with crypto exchanges collaboratively rather than just punitively. “I would say that 2022 is the year of setting the basis for future legislative and regulatory activity,” she said, somewhat hopefully.
But after the fall of FTX, crypto advocates and skeptics have come together to recognize that — however it happens — something needs to change regarding Web3 oversight. If 2022 was a time for setting the basis of regulatory activity in the crypto industry, you’d think 2023 would kick that activity into overdrive. But lawmakers are taking a moment to step back from enacting such legislation. And they’re right to do so.
First, it would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not the SEC, jurisdiction over Bitcoin, Ethereum, and likely other cryptocurrencies. The two bodies have increasingly sparred with one another over a central question: are digital assets like cryptocurrencies commodities or securities? If classified as the former, they’d likely fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. And while CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam has asserted that the perception of the organization being a more lax regulator of the industry is an illusion, a few of the provisions stipulated (in at least some versions of the DCCPA) indicate otherwise.
According to The Wall Street Journal, while at least some versions of the proposed bill maintain the SEC’s ability to go after exchanges that list tokens that meet its definition of a security, the legislation would give exchanges themselves first-instance deferral to determine whether or not a particular listed token was a security or a commodity. Though it wouldn’t give the exchanges the final say in doing so, it would allow them some authority in determining this crucial legal issue, which is far more leeway than they’d likely be given if brought under the official jurisdiction of the SEC.