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HOW REGULATION COULD HELP CRYPTOCURRENCIES GROW

by Stephen J. Obie and Mark W. Rasmussen

Ignorance may be bliss for some, but ask anyone in commerce or finance, and they will make it abundantly clear: Ignorance is risk. For that reason, U.S. markets embrace reasonable regulation to ensure transparency and fairness. Stocks are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), commodities by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and government currency by the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. But an emergent fourth asset class, cryptocurrencies, has no single regulator, and that is leading to uncertainty and confusion.

In 2018 the SEC announced the appointment of one of the agency’s veteran attorneys, ...

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