November 25, 2022
The FTX collapse has renewed calls for international laws to regulate the crypto sector, and for regulators to take crypto platforms more seriously, with the target being on conglomerate platforms from 2023, according to Jean-Paul Servais, the new chair of the international securities watchdog IOSCO.
According to Servais, the regulation of crypto platforms could draw on principles from other industries that deal with conflicts of interest, such as credit rating agencies and market benchmark compilers, without having to start from scratch. Despite the existence of cryptos such as Bitcoin, regulators have resisted writing new regulations for years.
Servais said, “The sense of urgency was not the same even two or three years ago. There are some dissenting opinions about whether crypto is a real issue at the international level because some people think that it’s still not a material issue and risk.”
“For investor protection reasons, there is a need to provide additional clarity to these crypto markets through targeted guidance in applying IOSCO’s principles to crypto assets,” Servais added.
Furthermore, he stated that regulators would be insane not to address such issues in the future due to existing complacency.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
