SEC And FATF Are Moving Towards Acceptance of Digital Assets
In September, the regulators of several countries got extraordinarily active: releases of normative acts, various statements of responsible persons, conferences, and summits. It seems that at the moment there is an active accumulation of information, followed by a qualitative leap.
The SEC of the USA announced the start of decision-making procedures on the admissibility or inadmissibility of bitcoin-ETF. The corresponding order appeared on the website of the department. The peculiarity of the process is that the commission must collect a number of public independent opinions on 18 issues concerning possible instruments for monitoring and protecting the rights of investors during exchange trades in virtual assets. Among them there are the following: "Is it true that digital assets are better protected from manipulation than traditional stock actions?", "Can the price parameters of a digital asset be controlled better?", and “What are the opinions of commentators on the methodology for evaluating assets?" And lots of other relating things.
At the same time, SEC claims that 1400 comments have already appeared and some more are coming.
"The start of this procedure is appropriate in connection with the accumulated economic and political issues associated with changing the rules of trade," the Commission Secretary Brent FIELDS said. - But this does not mean that the Commission came to any conclusions. More likely, as it will be highlighted below, the Commission is looking for interested parties and encourages them to comment on the proposed rule changes.”
We recall the backstory of this topic. They want to change the rules of trading at the request of the Cboe BZX exchange, which intends to launch futures instruments based on digital coins. Earlier, SEC answered negative to nine applicants for similar requests.
On the same day, the FATF working group announced its intentions to issue new standards to combat money laundering by using digital financial assets (DFA). The Agency's president Marshall BILLINGSLEA told the reporters that he expected the coordination of a series of amendments that would eliminate gaps in the global standards of ALM. The document should be ready by November.
"Now, the ALM mode for virtual assets is very "patchy" and inconsistent," Marshall BILLINGSLEA commented. "This presents a certain difficulty for the development of the digital market, but, nevertheless, virtual assets have an excellent opportunity for development."
Everything that is happening now in the virtual market looks like a whirlpool. At first glance, disparate events, tendencies, and statements tend to one point. Let's call it the threshold of institutionalization. And only after the SEC rules and FATF standards appear, when the American, British, and Indian regulators come to any conclusions regarding the definition of assets, it will be possible to talk about the emergence of unified standards for the legal regulation of a new sphere in the world economy. All market participants are looking forward to this moment.