New developments continue to emerge regarding planned regulations for the US cryptocurrency market. First, a meeting scheduled for Friday by the SEC, where a new regulatory framework for initial public offerings of crypto assets was to be discussed, was canceled at the last minute. The SEC was expected to initiate the formal rule-making process for this new framework, dubbed “Regulation Crypto Assets,” at that meeting.
One of the first to announce the cancellation of this meeting was American journalist Eleanor Terrett, who stated in her post that the SEC’s official reason was “an unforeseen programming problem.”
While speculation continues in the market about why the meeting was canceled, some sources are now pointing the finger at Wall Street.
Is the SEC Under Pressure from Wall Street?
According to Decrypt, Wall Street played a role in the cancellation of the SEC’s Friday meeting. Sources say that pressure from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a major Wall Street organization, was instrumental in the cancellation.
According to sources who spoke to Decrypt, SIFMA opposed the SEC’s creation of a framework that could provide crypto companies and tokenization firms with broad exemptions from existing securities regulations.
The report states that SIFMA’s main objection centers on whether the SEC can create such a broad regulatory framework using its existing statutory powers.
Sources also reported that SIFMA signaled that it could take legal action if the SEC took such a step. This is said to have influenced the SEC’s decision to postpone the planned meeting.
At this point, sources indicate that the real debate behind the scenes is the SEC’s regulatory authority over the cryptocurrency market and Wall Street’s objections to that regulation.
It is noteworthy that these developments come immediately after the US Senate failed to make progress on the CLARITY Act before going on recess in August, and the CLARITY Act was postponed until September.
According to experts, the SEC’s independent efforts to develop comprehensive regulations for the cryptocurrency market, coupled with Congress’s attempt to create a legal framework through the Clarity Act, make the debate over which institution and under what authority will shape cryptocurrency regulations in the US even more significant.
It remains unclear when the SEC will reschedule the meeting and whether the “Regulation Crypto Assets” process will continue.
*This is not investment advice.
