SEC to Focus on Crypto and ICO Fraud

SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations Announced 2018 Examination Priorities concerning Cryptocurrency and ICO Fraud

09 February 2018 1083

Every year SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations publishes their examination priorities in order to improve compliance, prevent fraud and monitor risk. This year, inspectors will focus on crypto and ICO fraud.

The financial inspectors of the SEC announced examination priorities on February 7 of 2018. The inspectors will monitor the growth of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Also, they will focus on matters involving critical market infrastructure, duties to retail investors, and developments in cryptocurrency, initial coin offerings, and secondary market trading.

Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman, appreciates OCIE’s dedication to maximizing the effectiveness of their resources with a keen eye toward asset verification, market infrastructure, and duties owed to retail investors.

According to the document, the cryptocurrency and ICO markets have grown rapidly and presented a number of risks for retail investors that is why the regulators will continue to monitor the sale of these products, and where the products are securities, examine the regulatory compliance.

Bitcoin Blockchain

SEC to Need More Info on BTC ETF

SEC is gathering more input from the public – to date, according to the agency, more than 1,400 comments have been submitted

21 September 2018 183

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the beginning of a formal process for considering the application for the creation of bitcoin-ETF from the New York companies VanEck and SolidX. Nevertheless, the agency appealed to the community for more information. This is stated in the document published on the SEC website.

Institution of such proceedings is appropriate at this time in view of the legal and policy issues raised by the proposed rule change. Institution of proceedings does not indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved. Rather, as described below, the Commission seeks and encourages interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission

At the moment, the SEC received about 1,400 comments.

According to the document, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has signed an agreement on the exchange of data on bitcoin transactions, trading and the state of the market with the cryptocurrency trading platform with Gemini.

The agency asked commentators to clarify the position of Gemini in the digital currency market and assess the likelihood of increased volatility at this site in connection with possible trades of bitcoin-ETF.

So, before September 30, the department had to decide on whether to approve, deny or initiate the proceedings. The SEC chose the latter, which is likely to delay the process until the next year.