Amid an increased focus on cryptocurrency among global regulators and lawmakers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is launching a new office dedicated to reviewing filings related to digital assets.
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Fast facts
- The SEC is adding the Office of Crypto Assets to the Division of Corporation Finance’s Disclosure Review Program (DRP), which is responsible for reviewing company filings by issuers, according to a Friday press release.
- The SEC said creating the office will allow the DRP to “better focus its resources and expertise to address the unique and evolving filing review issues related to crypto assets.”
- The SEC is simultaneously creating the Office of Industrial Applications and Services to address listings for the non-pharma, non-biotech, and non-medicinal product companies currently assigned to the Office of Life Sciences.
- Both the Office of Crypto Assets and the Office of Industrial Applications and Services are expected to launch this fall.
- “As a result of recent growth in the crypto asset and the life sciences industries, we saw a need to provide greater and more specialized support in the DRP’s Office of Finance and its Office of Life Sciences,” said Renee Jones, Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, in a statement.
- Recent legislation proposed by U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand could see many digital assets re-categorized as commodities, however, taking them out of the jurisdiction of the SEC and placing them under the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
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