U.S. regulators are still learning about cryptocurrencies and ICO, but have no goal to suppress the industry. This idea was echoed in the comments of the representatives of the regulatory agencies in the discussion at the Consensus conference 2018 in new York.
The discussion was attended by the Director of the office of enforcement of the Commission on trade commodity futures (CFTC), James MacDonald (James McDonald), the representative of the Commission on securities and exchange Commission (SEC), Robert Cohen (Robert Cohen), who oversees cyber security, Deputy assistant attorney General, Sujit Raman (Sujit Raman) and chief officer strategy cryptocurrency exchanges Bittrex Kiran Raj (Raj Kiran).
Notifying the participants of the Conference that will Express only my opinion, but not the position of their agencies, representatives of state authorities said that think it is wrong to discourage innovation or unduly interfere in the sphere of the blockchain and create a token — it should be noted, in this regard, the panelists were unanimous.
They stressed that measures should be taken against those who are looking for a way to deceive people and to seize the funds of market participants.
In particular, Cohen and MacDonald indicated that their agencies adhere to the “open door policy” for those who runs tocancel.
“The SEC is open to meetings with people from the industry: you can meet with employees to discuss ideas, new developments and technology. The Commission encourages ways of increasing capital, we have no control over the technology we regulate the Finance industry and markets,” explained Cohen.
In turn, McDonald raised the issue of a more flexible approach to the industry.
“Our mission is to promote the financial stability of the markets, and we, as a regulator, we understand that this requires a certain percentage of flexibility in our approach. We do so not to inhibit innovation and not to interfere, advancing other priorities of regulation,” — expressed his position, the representative of the CFTC, James McDonald.
At the same time, the assistant attorney General, Sujit Raman stressed the need to protect Americans, seeing this as the main goal of any action undertaken by the Ministry of justice.
“The main priority for the Ministry of justice to ensure the safety of people. One of the problems that we face, dealing with the sphere of virtual currencies is large amounts of money that circulate in the market to bypass financial institutions… From the point of view of national security or the fight against money laundering, that’s what we need to learn. As with other issues, it requires a balance between, but definitely one of our priorities — know what’s going on,” said Raman.
When the question about the main problems of the industry were asked of the representative Bittrex Kieran Raju, he pointed to the lack of clarity in the regulation of sales of tokens.
“One of the key aspects in respect of which I received feedback — that’s what we need more certainty. What we hear about fraud prevention is one of our main objectives. We agree, we don’t want fraudsters may have a place in the industry,” said Raj, explaining that there are some difficulties with the recommendations when using the digital assets may serve such different purposes, legitimate and not.
McDonald agreed, noting that the CFTC conducts its own Lab testing to be sure that in the end will be taken the best solution.
In turn, Cohen of the SEC noted that the Commission has already provided guidance on tokens.
“The main question is whether a token or any asset you have, of securities, and the Commission has issued guidance governing this issue. If the company or individual in good faith made efforts to ensure compliance with the requirements of the law, and if as a step in this direction, they come into communication with the regulators, we will work with them,” explained Cohen.
He also pointed out that when these efforts are, on the contrary, not attached, is — “clear”, and this is the case when the SEC will intervene.
Recall, the Consensus Conference 2018 will be held from 14 to 17 may and is one of the main annual events in Cryptoprotected. Moreover, the well-known analyst Tom Lee, the event and its outcome may seriously affect the course of the cryptocurrency.
