According to a new amendment in California’s securities-law, the world’s technological industry could be providing new clarity to cryptocurrency owners. California is one of the biggest economies in the United States, and the decision to provide clarity to cryptocurrencies could be a huge boost to the industry. The criteria that are mentioned for crypto is what it says in the Howey test. The Howey test is the federal metric for assessing whether or not an asset is qualified as an investment contract. The update in the securities law in California could indicate that cryptocurrencies are securities.
The federal securities and exchange commission will decide whether a cryptocurrency is a security or not.
The bill was initially introduced to update the securities law earlier this year, but the new update in the bill also targets the role of cryptocurrency for the future. The federal securities and exchange commission has been one government body to have an impact on the crypto industry. They have consistently disputed to having a limited basis to confirm whether a particular token is a security or not. Currently, several crypto companies are fighting the US SEC over this issue as companies claim their token can not be categorized as security, and the exchange commission claims otherwise.
Countries continue to enforce crypto regulations based on the FATF guidelines.
Crypto regulations around the world have been a topic of discussion since the inception of bitcoin. However, in most of the countries, cryptocurrencies continue to remain in the grey area as there are no specific regulations. In recent times things started to change as many countries including, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and many others, have enforced crypto regulations based on the Financial Action Task Force guidelines issued last year.
The guidelines issued by the FATF last year are subjected to criticism in the crypto industry as it asks exchanges and other crypto-based firms to collect personal data of users. Several crypto firms in Europe have shut down because of new anti-money laundering regulations.
