Nasdaq has urged the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) to maintain digital assets to the identical regulatory requirements as securities in the event that they represent “shares by any other identify,” in accordance to an April 25 remark letter.
The change said the US monetary regulator wants to set up a clearer taxonomy for cryptocurrencies, together with categorizing a portion of digital assets as “monetary securities.” These tokens, Nasdaq argued, ought to proceed to be regulated “as they’re regulated right now no matter tokenized kind.”
“Whether or not it takes the type of a paper share, a digital share, or a token, an instrument’s underlying nature stays the identical and it ought to be traded and controlled in the identical methods,” the letter stated.
It additionally proposed categorizing a portion of cryptocurrencies as “digital asset funding contracts,” to be topic to “gentle contact regulation” however nonetheless overseen by the SEC.
Associated: Certain stablecoins aren’t securities, SEC says in new guidance
Regulatory U-turn
The SEC has dramatically pivoted its stance on cryptocurrency oversight since US President Donald Trump took workplace in January.
Below the management of former Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC took the place that virtually all cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin (BTC), signify funding contracts and subsequently qualify as securities.
This stance led the company to convey upwards of 100 lawsuits towards crypto companies for alleged securities legislation violations.
Nonetheless, underneath Trump nominee Paul Atkins, who was sworn in as chair on April 21 after a prolonged Senate affirmation, the SEC has claimed jurisdiction over a narrower phase of cryptocurrencies.
In February, the company issued steering stating that memecoins — if clearly recognized as purely speculative assets with no intrinsic worth — do not qualify as investment contracts pursuant to US legislation.
In April, the SEC stated that stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to the US greenback — equally don’t qualify as securities if they’re marketed solely as a means of making payments.
Integrating crypto into TradFi
In its April 21 letter, Nasdaq stated current monetary infrastructure “can readily take up digital assets by establishing the right taxonomy and calibrating certain guidelines to replicate what is actually new and novel about digital assets.”
The Depository Belief & Clearing Company (DTCC) — a non-public US securities clearinghouse intently overseen by the SEC — has been laying the inspiration for integrating blockchain know-how into regulated monetary markets.
In March, the DTCC committed to promoting Ethereum’s ERC-3643 standard for permissioned securities tokens.
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