Nasdaq has urged the US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) to carry digital property to the identical regulatory requirements as securities in the event that they represent “shares by another title,” in response to an April 25 remark letter.
The trade mentioned the US monetary regulator wants to determine a clearer taxonomy for cryptocurrencies, together with categorizing a portion of digital property as “monetary securities.” These tokens, Nasdaq argued, ought to proceed to be regulated “as they’re regulated right this moment no matter tokenized type.”
“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 must be traded and controlled in the identical methods,” the letter mentioned.
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: Sure stablecoins aren’t securities, SEC says in new steering
Regulatory U-turn
The SEC has dramatically pivoted its stance on cryptocurrency oversight since US President Donald Trump took workplace in January.
Beneath the management of former Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC took the place that virtually all cryptocurrencies, excluding Bitcoin (BTC), symbolize funding contracts and subsequently qualify as securities.
This stance led the company to convey upwards of 100 lawsuits in opposition to crypto companies for alleged securities legislation violations.
Nevertheless, beneath 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 property with no intrinsic worth — don’t qualify as funding contracts pursuant to US legislation.
In April, the SEC mentioned that stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to the US greenback — equally don’t qualify as securities if they’re marketed solely as a way of creating funds.
Integrating crypto into TradFi
In its April 21 letter, Nasdaq mentioned present monetary infrastructure “can readily take in digital property by establishing the right taxonomy and calibrating sure guidelines to mirror what is actually new and novel about digital property.”
The Depository Belief & Clearing Company (DTCC) — a personal US securities clearinghouse carefully overseen by the SEC — has been laying the muse for integrating blockchain expertise into regulated monetary markets.
In March, the DTCC dedicated to selling Ethereum’s ERC-3643 customary for permissioned securities tokens.
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