US SEC creates ‘Office of Crypto Assets’ to focus on corporate filings

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to establish a new office as part of its Disclosure Review Program (DRP), focusing exclusively on corporate filings of digital assets.

Known as the “Office of Crypto Assets,” the new space has been created alongside the Office of Industrial Applications and Services, adding to the seven existing industry offices under the DRP.

The new office will continue work currently being done across the DRP to review corporate filings related to digital assets, according to the SEC. Press release. The regulator believes this will allow the DRP to better focus its resources and expertise to address the unique and evolving issues associated with this rapidly growing sector.

“Due to the recent growth of the crypto asset [industry]…we saw the need for more and more specialized support to the DRP Finance Office. The creation of these new offices will allow the DRP to focus more on crypto assets, financial institutions and facilitate our ability to fulfill our mission,” commented SEC Director of the Corporate Finance Division, Renee Jones.

The new office is in line with other efforts this year by the SEC to better oversee the Bitcoin industry. Although it has yet to be officially assigned the role of digital asset industry watchdog, the SEC has continued to act as the de facto regulator of the industry.

The SEC’s continued dominance in digital asset regulation stems from a firm belief that most tokens are securities, a sentiment Chairman Gary Gensler recently reiterated.

“Of the nearly 10,000 tokens in the crypto market, I believe the vast majority are securities. The offers and sales of these thousands of crypto security tokens are covered by securities laws. Gensler said in a September 8 post speech.

Gensler, also a former CFTC chairman, brushed off some of the popular “crypto bros” defenses, saying:

“It’s not about whether you created a legal entity as a nonprofit and funded it with tokens. It’s not about whether you rely on software open source or if you can use a token as part of a smart contract… Promoters do marketing and the investing public buys most of these tokens, touting or anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.

The new office comes months after the SEC doubled its staff in its Cyber ​​Unit, which it also renamed Crypto Assets and Cyber ​​Unit.

Watch: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on Bitcoin Association Blockchain Policy Issues

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