Category: Cryptocurrency

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), an international task force that is tasked with tackling securities violations in the cryptocurrency industry, on August 28 announced that it has opened active investigations into over 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto-related investment products.

First launched in May, the operation – referred to as “Operation Cryptosweep” – has been targeting a number of suspicious crypto investment products. It is composed of regulators from the United States and Canada which makes it the largest coordinated investigation by state and provincial officials. It has also already seen through 47 enforcement actions against ICOs and cryptocurrency investment funds in the U.S. and Canada, something that has earned its praise from Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The violations the operation has uncovered range from securities fraud to failure to properly register products before offering access to investors.

According to NASAA president and Alabama Securities Commission director Joseph Borg, the regulatory operation continues to commit significant resources to ensure that retail investors are protected. This is especially because many cryptocurrency advocates and financial watchdogs are split on how the ICOs and crypto firms should be regulated. NASAA’s contribution is, therefore, one of the best developments in the sector since other than protecting the retail investors, it will also serve to raise awareness among industry participants in regards to their regulatory obligations and responsibilities.

“While not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is a fraud, it is important for individuals and firms selling these products to be mindful that they are not doing so in a vacuum; state and provincial laws or regulations may apply, especially securities laws. Sponsors of these products should seek the advice of knowledgeable legal counsel to ensure they do not run afoul of the law. Furthermore, a strong culture of compliance should be in place before, not after, these products are marketed to investors,” Joseph Borg added.

Do Your Homework, Investors Told

As it stands, NASAA is the oldest international organization whose main focus is investor protection – it is based on voluntary association and boasts of 67 member states, provinces and territories across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. However, despite its far-reaching capabilities in handling irregularities in the crypto within the mentioned areas, there still needs to be some element of support from other stakeholders.

The operations president has highlighted the need for ICOs to register with the appropriate agencies or, if possible, contact regulators to check whether they qualify for exemptions or not. He further warned investors against dealing with ICO promoters claiming their products is exempt from securities registration unless of course, the claim is verifiable.

“Do your homework and contact your state or provincial securities regulator with any concerns before parting with your hard-earned money — afterward may be too late,” he pointed out.

Crypto has been on a roll with a ton of new developments popping up every single day. While the nascent industry is certainly headed towards the right direction, achieving full regulatory approval is a very big deal, especially for cryptocurrency exchanges – it is even harder for them to get regulatory approval before they launch. Well, not anymore.

Liechtenstein-based Blocktrade.com has just been approved by the Finance Markets Authority and is set to be the first digital currency exchange to be open for testing – the Financial Markets Authority is a member of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). In a press release, the company confirmed that is in the process of obtaining a multilateral trading facility (MTF) license courtesy of the European Union’s MiFID II framework.

Blockrade.com’s launched the beta version for testing last week – this trial period is set to end on August 25 and will be followed by the full launch though the actual date of the launch is yet to be revealed.

“I hope early adopters will provide us with valuable feedback so that we can improve the platform even further. I believe its capability, as well as its user experience, are impressive, so I am convinced the word about our beta release will be spread widely. We are already setting up interviews with major financial, fintech and business media, so I will get a chance to talk about our development and vision for the future of finance,” Blocktrade’s CEO Luka Gubo said in a recent interview.

During the aforementioned initial testing phase, Bolcktrade.com will be offering Ethereum, bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple’s XRP trading pairs. Once the platform is fully launched later this year (around September), it will offer Security Tokens, Crypto Traded Indices and Tokenized Assets.

“We believe that if you operate an exchange and if you have an orderbook with a matching engine, you should also be regulated as an exchange. This removes the hurdles for traders (retail and institutional alike) to access the new asset class as the full MiFID II compliance makes us more transparent, reliable, trustworthy and enables equal access for all,” Gubo added.

The State of Crypto

Unfortunately, many institutional investors still regard the unregulated exchanges that dominate the crypto market as risks due to the lack of transparency. In fact, as it stands the European Union is yet to come up with a unified position and regulatory requirements for the cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the territory.

As for the MiFID II which came into effect at the beginning of 2018, the licensing process is quite explicit and will certainly do for now. To put this into perspective, it requires that the companies seeking its license prove that they have operated fairly, honestly and professionally in the best interests of the users of their platforms. The institutions also have to comply with a number of reporting, transparency and capital requirements.

The crypto industry is well on its way to mainstream adoption albeit with a few though significant setbacks such as the shakeup of the industry’s history of shady transactions and fraud. Fortunately, Nasdaq Inc. believes it has just what it takes to get clear the obstacles that have impeded progress in as far as the legitimization of cryptocurrencies is concerned.

Bloomberg reports that earlier this week Nasdaq Inc. hosted a closed-door meeting that was attended by half a dozen cryptocurrency companies and mainstream institution. These included Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ crypto exchange platform, Gemini. The main agenda of the meeting was a discussion pertaining to ‘how to encourage the cryptocurrency industry to do things that will improve its image and validate its potential role in global markets’. A source familiar with meeting also confirmed that the parties that attended the meeting also discussed the potential implications of future regulation of digital currencies, the necessary tools for such an initiative as well as what surveillance would be needed for such a future.

Certainly Not the Last

Nasdaq has recently announced a partnership cum collaboration with Gemini, who as mentioned earlier also attended the closed-door meeting. While both companies declined to give any comments on the meeting and what was discussed, Nasdaq did confirm that the meeting did indeed take place. Their collaboration will see Nasdaq tap Gemini’s SMARTS market Surveillance, an industry benchmark technology that is extensively used by Wall Street firms.

It has further been confirmed that the meeting was not the last of its kind and this is a clear indication that cryptocurrency startups are working harder towards achieving mainstream adoption and mollifying the anxieties of regulators. Considering how often regulatory clampdowns occur, stakeholders in the cryptocurrency industry are starting to employ more forward-thinking and proactive approaches to ensure its survival.

By ensuring that both crypto and fiat firms work together, Nasdaq believes that the legitimization of digital currencies will have lesser setbacks. To this effect, the company has already partnered with a number of cryptocurrency exchanges in a bid to foster or facilitate collaboration on some of the most significant impediments to crypto regulation.

“I think the technology is fascinating and it’s a very sound technology. It’s just a matter of making sure that the community is all-embracing it together,” Adena Friedman, the Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer said.

One of the most recent issues that will hopefully be addressed by this initiative is the move by United States regulators to classify digital assets as securities instead of utility tokens. The US crypto community is concerned that this move will result in some adverse effects on the emerging cryptocurrency sector.