The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Jay Clayton and his colleague from the Commission on the US Commodity Futures Trading (CFTC) Christopher Giancarlo co-wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal about the crypto industry problems it the field of market regulation.
In particular, it was considered the potential application of the existing legal framework to regulate the economy of digital money.
Clayton and Giancarlo note, many compare the blockchain technology with a steam engine and the PC, which at one time was the driving force of the economy.
Cryptocurrency initially positioned as an alternative to fiat money to speed up payments, however, underline the leaders of market regulators, their perception and promotion with a role of investment assets have a negative impact on their native intended function.
Clayton Giancarlo urged investors to be vigilant because of the high risk, noting that part of the market participants does get a substantial profit. They also compared crypto boom of market with dot-com bubble in the late 1990s.
At the same time they are not in any way seek to prohibit investments in crypto industry, because they believe that regulators should maintain technological progress. However, Clayton and Giancarlo are concerned that many crypto platforms do not comply with the requirements of the current legislation and do not even registered with the CFTC.
Most of these platforms have positioned themselves as the payment system and not subject to oversight by the SEC and the CFTC. Thus, according to officials, it is necessary to question the effectiveness of the existing regulatory framework. In addition, they are reminded of the federal legislation is applied not in all cases, which complicates regulation by the federal authorities.
Running Bitcoin-futures on the CBOE and CME was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has access to the data for tracking unfair practices on the market. The SEC, in turn, has focused attention on the market of ICO "intends to actively pursue those who break the law in the field of securities."
Summing up, Clayton and Giancarlo acknowledged that blockchain can improve the performance of economic processes and lead to further technological progress in the financial sector. So, for example, is preparing to launch Safinus platform that will allow investors who have no experience in blockchain industry to invest without risk to become a victim of fraud. It will use a unique mechanism of joining the investment portfolios of experienced investors.
In addition, the Commission intends to scrutinize the activities of companies that are "suddenly" started to be blockchain based from the traditional business sectors, then their actions demonstrated exponential growth.
Recall, CFTC recently filed lawsuits against two companies about fraud and deception of cryptocurrency investors.