The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released a set of global regulatory recommendations related to crypto regulation.
The IOSCO’s Fintech Task Force presented a report outlining key legislative and regulatory recommendations for cryptocurrency assets aimed at maintaining market integrity and protecting investors.
The main recommendation, addressed to all regulators, is not to create any distinctions in the regulation of crypto and traditional finances. According to the document’s authors, such an approach would take into account the cross-border nature of the market activity, create a level playing field in the cryptocurrency market and traditional financial markets, and reduce the risk of regulatory arbitrage.
In total, the report includes 18 recommendations, developed based on the experience of applying global standards for regulating securities markets and aimed at addressing key issues identified in crypto-asset markets, as well as neutralizing the risks associated with them. The proposed recommendations cover the full range of activities conducted in crypto-asset markets, including offering, admission to trading, trading processes, settlement, market surveillance, custody, storage, and marketing and distribution of assets. However, the IOSCO recommendations don’t cover the area of decentralized finance (DeFi).
The published report is advisory in nature. Everyone is invited to submit their proposals on the recommendations until July 31, 2023. Then the IOSCO, whose members include 225 organizations that regulate more than 95% of the world’s securities markets, will begin to develop final recommendations for global regulation of cryptocurrency assets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also an active member of the IOSCO, whose representatives put a lot of pressure on the cryptocurrency industry in the country. Moreover, many argue that the SEC’s actions are illegitimate and are causing a decline in some sectors of the cryptocurrency market in the United States.
