On January 25, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman published a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency. The authors addressed the emergence of distributed ledger technology that has given way to the rise of new financial products, including cryptocurrency and digital payment services. The Chairmen indicated that key issues include how to regulate internet-based cryptocurrency trading platforms and whether to take the same approach historically used to regulate currency transactions, because many of such trading platforms have registered as payment services and are not subject to direct SEC or CFTC oversight. The authors reiterated that the SEC, CFTC, other federal and state regulators and criminal authorities will continue monitoring cryptocurrency markets to deter and prosecute fraud and abuse and bring transparency and integrity to these markets. For more information, see https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/statement-clayton-giancarlo-012518.
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