Hot Features
Premium
Register to chat with like-minded investors on our interactive forums.
US finance and watchdogs have started to look more carefully at the world of Cryptocurrencies. After the expression of interest by the financial giant Blackrock, who confirmed the creation of an internal team in charge of studying possible opportunities generated by bitcoin and other cryptos, and the interest expressed also by George Soros and the Rockefeller family, another important announcement arrived by two important US regulators.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US authority that oversees regulated markets and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a private organization that regulates brokerage relationships with Wall Street, have given permission to the popular Coinbase exchange to list those cryptocurrencies considered similar to equity.
The digital coins born from the initial coin offers (ICO) processes, with which the start-up’s active in this market are financed, usually comply with the Erc-20 standards of the Ethereum blockchain and are generally of three types:
1) actual cryptocurrencies, which are considered on a par with fiat currency as means of payment for the purchase of generic goods and services.
2) ‘securities tokens’, which represent a direct participation in the life of the start-up, as if it were equity.
3) ‘utilities token’, which entitle their owner to purchase goods and services made exclusively by the entity that issued the digital currency.
The interest of the US Coinbase, currently one of the most important exchange platforms in the world, is precisely against tokens similar to shares. SEC and FINRA have given the green light to the company to acquire Keystone Capital, Venovate Marketplace and Digital Wealth brokers, allowing Coinbase to act as an intermediary on the stock market. This means that the online exchange and portfolio platform, founded in 2012 and now managing over 20 million users, will have to operate under the strict federal supervision and follow the same rules as for the traditional stock exchange. This is an important step forward towards the long-awaited regulation of the world of digital currencies. And above all, of ICOs, which are increasingly associated with more or less evident scams.
Despite the revolutions taking place in the United States, China and other countries, through initial coin offers, start-ups have raised over $12B only in the first six months of 2018: a triple figure compared to the whole of 2017. The SEC has already intervened more on the subject, specifying how most of the “created” currencies during these operations should be treated like equities: this means that issuers must adhere to federal laws, as well as platforms that allow customers to exchange tokens.
Some days ago, Coinbase also announced that it wanted to explore the addition of five new coins to its portfolio: Cardano (Ada), Basic Attention Token (Bat), Stellar Lumens (Xlm), Zcash (Zec) and 0x (Zrx). However, the company underlines preliminary assessments that may not even lead to effective implementation of tokens. The exchange currently supports only bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin, respectively the first, second, fourth and sixth currency by market capitalization.
