Fourteen years after the Genesis Bitcoin blockchain launched a significant disruption in financial services and other industries through blockchain technology, the United States authorities are finally becoming more interested in the future and economic impact of cryptocurrencies.
On December 14, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) discussed new accounting and disclosure requirements for entities holding crypto assets in their financial statements, following an agenda consultation with investors – the first in five years. The proposed rule will be issued in the first half of 2023.
A few days ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent a sample letter on new developments in the crypto market, asking companies to consider in the disclosure “the need to address the development of the crypto asset market in its general filing, including in the description of the business, risk factors, and discussion and analysis management.”
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These changes will be felt by many players in the crypto and financial services industry, according to legal specialists. “It should have a very large and ultimately large macro and micro impact on the financial markets in general and the crypto industry in particular,” Mark Kornfeld, a securities and financial fraud shareholder at the law firm Buchanan Ingersol and Rooney, told Cointelegraph. According to the lawyer:
“First of all, the Commission, as it did after the Madoff Ponzi scheme was announced to the whole world, will aggressively monitor and carry out a full regulatory examination of the thousands (if not more) doing business in and around this place. All in the market should be quite anticipating and fully expect a sizable uptick in the process of regulatory enforcement by the Commission, and, continue legal challenges to, the jurisdictional authority of the Commission.
Cryptocurrency is also reportedly a focus of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with its Criminal Investigations division hiring hundreds of new agents to work on digital assets and cyber crimes. Along with its own data scientists, the IRS hopes to work with crypto companies, with the goal of creating a “symbiotic relationship” to fight financial crime.
Legislators in the United States are also under pressure to set a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies after the dramatic fall in FTX last November, setting the stage for future oversight of the crypto market in 2023.
However, there are some who believe that the results will be positive in the long run. “The net result should prove to be a more regulated and transparent climate, increased market stability, and investor and consumer protection much improved in a place that has until recently operated in an environment characterized as relatively secretive and opaque,” noted Kornfeld.