A new working group founded by the Blockchain Association seeks to build a better environment for crypto companies in the US.
Bitcoin Market Integrity
According to outside reporting, Rachel Nelson and Breanne Madigan, of Coinbase and Ripple respectively, are building a team that can get through to government and industry alike. The pair wrote in a blog post:
To improve market integrity and provide consumers the confidence they deserve, Congress may need to enact legislation to support the orderly and secure functioning of crypto markets. Such legislation could expand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) authority to include the regulation and oversight of digital commodity exchange markets.
Market integrity is a huge undertaking in cryptocurrency, where up to 95% of all volume is apparently fake. A now-pulled ETF application was previously based on just 5% of all volume as a result, but it was still initially denied. Although the process was in the review phase, the sponsors decided enough was enough.
In the United States, in crypto at least, you’re either in or you’re out, it seems. Either way, you want to have a serious legal warchest, because you never know when the government is going to come after you, whether you’re doing it right or not.
Then there is the issue of government compliance with investigations and the like. Some companies fight, while others just roll over. Either way, consumers have feelings about these types of issues, which complicates the matter of mass adoption.
A New Era for US Blockchain Companies?
But the new Market Integrity Working Group looks to change all that.
According to the blog post, the group “advances our mission to provide clarity to the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.”
Clarity that is desperately needed. As BSN reported earlier today, companies will now be flocking to Singapore as a result of the country’s clear-cut licensing structure, which offers a no-nonsense path to setting up shop in the Kingdom.
The Blockchain Association would like to see the CFTC made the clear regulatory oversight of crypto assets. Bitcoin, after all, is treated as a commodity. It therefore makes sense for the CFTC to have an interest in it, which they already do. Now the question is whether or not other agencies would be willing to bow down to their authority over the market.
Once that was established, a question of exchange and other integrity would arise. The value of the cryptocurrency is at stake, so everyone would have to be willing to play by the same rules. Thus enters the clarity.
Currently, none of that is the case. Instead, a multitude of agencies claim authority over cryptocurrency, and companies have no clear guidelines on when they’re breaking the law or not. For this reason, an increasing number of companies are flocking overseas, to places like Singapore and Malta, but the Blockchain Association would like to change this.
Dishonest Bitcoin markets have played a serious role in the current outlook for crypto companies in the United States, but as we see, there’s a lot more to the story. Crypto companies may yet have a chance of successfully doing business in the US – without a massive legal team – if the Blockchain Association is at all successful in this venture.
