Ride the Lightning

ABA Reports Surveys Cryptocurrency Regulations

March 20, 2019

The ABA Journal reported that the ABA has just released a new report surveying cryptocurrency regulations. The report is entitled "Digital and Digitized Assets" Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues."

The ABA Business Law Section's 353-page document provides definitions relevant to digital currency, domestic regulatory issues, and what international bodies and other countries are doing when confronted by the new technology.

“There are lots of different points of view and issues regarding how cryptocurrency markets and transactions are regulated, and these are products that current statutes didn’t envision when they were enacted,” says Charley Mills, chair of the Innovative Digitized Products and Processes Subcommittee (IDPPS) Jurisdiction Working Group and partner at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington D.C. “So, we thought it would be useful to do a survey to see where the law is.”

Without a comprehensive regulatory scheme, various federal agencies and states are reacting to different issues as they appear. The report includes a 50-state survey of relevant laws and regulations. The paper also provides a framework to improve clarity and consistency among federal agencies enforcing rules regarding digital assets.

A digital asset, when created, can take the form of a security investment, while over time, the same asset begins to look more like a derivative, making enforcement hard. This has led to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission winding up with overlapping enforcement and some inconsistencies on this subject, explains Kathryn Trkla, chair of IDPPS and partner at Foley & Lardner in Chicago.

Beyond regulators, Trkla hopes that the document will also be useful to practitioners looking to get grounded in the issues surrounding cryptocurrency.

A very helpful roadmap to a confusing subject!

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