Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Entertainment
- Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) urges Congress to create a single federal crypto market regulator instead of applying existing regulations to digital assets, according to the company's Digital Policy Proposal.
- "There should be one federal regulator designated for digital asset markets," Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase (COIN) told reporters, MarketWatch reports.
- The new regulator would be responsible for registering and supervising marketplaces for digital assets to ensure against fraud and manipulation; it would also be in charge of initial coin offerings, which allows a crypto to trade on a public exchange — much like an initial public offering for a business.
- Note that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cleared its first regulated version of an initial coin offering in July 2019.
- But the SEC has sought to intervene in cryptocurrencies countless of times in the past year alone, and even came after Coinbase (COIN) in September, saying it may sue the company on its Lend product.
- "This proposal, if implemented, would enable many, if not all, public companies to stop issuing stock, start issuing coins and avoid the securities law," Todd Phillips, director of financial regulation and corporate governance at the Center for American Progress told MarketWatch.
- Shares of COIN climb on Thursday as the waitlist for its upcoming NFT platform gets 1.35M signups.
- Previously, (Sept. 21) Coinbase plans to pitch cryptocurrency regulations to U.S. officials - CoinDesk.