The US and The UK: It’s Time To Get Ready for a Struggle for The Digital Market
RegulationBit News Today1 min read
The UK and the US have both turned their attention to the digital market, scrutinizing it for risks and potential while discussing how these risky assets should be regulated.
The UK Treasury Committee started an investigation into virtual currencies in February 2018. On 19 September 2018, the committee published its crypto-assets report, a detailed analysis of both the risks and potential of cryptocurrencies. The report recommends the UK parliament should allow the Regulated Activities Order to apply to cryptoassets, giving the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK's top financial regulator, more authority to regulate crypto markets. At present, UK law places crypto-assets outside the regulatory scope of the FCA.
US Eyes Crypto
On 18 September 2018, one day before the UK Treasury Committee published its report, the New York Attorney General's office announced the results of its own inquiry into the trading platforms that consumers use to trade virtual currencies. Called the Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative, the inquiry started in April 2018 by issuing questionnaires to 13 trading platforms to gather details about their policies, operations, internal controls, and customer asset protections. A summary of the findings from the New York Attorney General (NYAG) identifies three broad areas of concern: potential conflicts of interest, lack of serious efforts to impede abusive trading activity, and limited protections for customer funds. The NYAG, an aggressive enforcer within securities markets, determined that cryptocurrency trading platforms differ substantially in their risk management approaches and how they handle obligations to customers.
According to the report, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood referred Binance, Gate.io, and Kraken to the Department of Financial Services for doing business with New York residents without a license.
