The Office of Crypto Assets, which is soon to be established, will examine crypto filings in order to allow DRP to emphasize on file review concerns relating to crypto assets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to establish two additional offices this autumn to offer specialist support to the seven offices already in charge of reviewing issuer filings due to the surge in filings from cryptocurrency issuers in the United States.
The SEC announced plans to add two offices — an Office of Crypto Assets and an Office of Industrial Applications and Services — solely dedicated to dealing with crypto assets and industrial applications and services, respectively, under the Division of Corporation Finance’s Disclosure Review Program (DRP).
Renee Jones, director of the Division of Corporation Finance, provided insight into the change:
“The creation of these new offices will enable the DRP to enhance its focus in the areas of crypto assets, financial institutions, life sciences, and industrial applications and services and facilitate our ability to meet our mission.”
The Office of Crypto Assets will take over DRP’s effort to examine crypto filings, allowing the department to devote its resources “to address the specific and emerging filing review challenges relating to crypto assets,” according to the release.
Contrarily, the Office of Industrial Applications and Services will be organized to take over the Office of Life Sciences’ non-pharmaceutical, non-biotechnological, and non-medical products.
MicroStrategy recently declared its intention to sell $500,000,000 worth of class A shares and reinvest the proceeds “for general company objectives, including the acquisition of Bitcoin,” according to an SEC filing.
The SEC has dealt with a lot of cryptocurrency-related concerns over the past year, including filings with major companies that have jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and pursuing exchanges like Coinbase and Binance for listing securities. These issues will now be handled by the new office.
SEC head Gensler hinted at the probable path of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation in the US in recent remarks on CNBC’s Squawk Box by discussing the implications of classifying some cryptocurrencies as commodities rather than securities.
As one of the prerequisites for an asset to qualify as a security, Gensler claimed that the “hundreds of tokens” traded on the cryptocurrency market offered investors “a return” in 99 percent of the instances. They would subsequently be governed by the SEC as a result.