U.S. regulators are still actively interested in the cryptocurrency and primary offerings of coins (ICO), but not goal to harm the industry of digital assets in General. Similar statements were made during the conference, the Consensus 2018 in new York, organized by the publication CoinDesk.
So, in the event the Director of the enforcement division of the Commission on trade commodity futures (CFTC) James McDonald, head of the cyber crime Commission at the securities and exchange Commission (SEC) Robert Cohen and Deputy attorney General, Sujit Rahman participated in the discussion on enforcement in the field of cryptocurrency. They also joined the chief strategist of the exchange Bittrex Kieran Rage, and the lead made by the lawyer Steve Bandel.
Government officials immediately said that everything said is their personal opinion and may not coincide with the policy of the Department which they represent. It is noteworthy that they all eventually agreed that I didn’t want to put a spoke in the wheel of innovation or unfairly denigrate the technology of the blockchain and the tokens that were created on its basis.
At the same time, all three representatives of authorities stated that they are forced to be active to curb the activities of fraudsters who almost openly trying to steal the money of the members of the crypto community.
Cohen and MacDonald said that both their offices profess an “open door policy” when it comes to run ICO.
“The SEC is open in terms of meetings with representatives of the industry. We can come and meet the staff, talk about ideas, developments and to establish a dialogue about new technologies. The Commission supports the desire to create capital, we have no control over the technology we regulate the financial industry and markets” — said Cohen.
He was supported by MacDonald.
“Our goal is to promote the development of financial markets and as a regulator we understand that this requires some flexibility in approach. We do this so that not to interfere with innovation”, he added.
In turn, Raman has also supported the idea that their activities are aimed at protecting Americans.
“The primary task of the Ministry of justice — to protect people. One of the main reasons of concern is that people poured into this market huge sums that pass through financial institutions. From the point of view of national security or anti-money laundering legislation is the precedent that we have to investigate. As in everything — we need a balance here, but it’s definitely one of our priorities — know what is currently happening”, said Raman.
At the same time, the representative Bittrex I am sure that the main difficulty for the industry is the lack of clarity in the regulation of tomenselo.
“I get a lot of feedback on what needs more certainty. Very often we hear about fraud and we agree that such people are not needed in our industry. The problem is that how can we create the user and apply it in our activities when she is so detached from what the Scam?”, — said Kiran Raj.
Agreed with him and McDonald.
“The research Department the CFTC makes every possible effort that we can to achieve the best result possible. We are trying to act differently than the departments of politics, but they are discussions with market participants, “added McDonald.
However, Cohen noted that for its part the SEC has already issued guidance on the tokens.
“The main problem lies in the fact whether a token or a similar asset securities, and the Commission shall provide guidance on this issue. If the firm or individual is genuinely trying to comply with the laws, including communicating with regulators, we will work with them. It’s always evident when people do not even try to comply with the law. And then we have to act”, concluded Cohen.
Earlier, the SEC Commissioner Hester Pairs also stated that the Department should not pull all ICO with the same brush. In turn, the representative of the SEC Robert Jackson has previously indicated that the Commission is primarily concerned about the protection of cryptocurrency investors.
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