This year has been a strong one for digital asset markets, highlighted by growing institutional inflows and a propitious shift in the regulatory environment. Witness the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s September letter that says crypto exchanges that comply with SEC Rule 15c3-3 (the Customer Protection Rule) are free to trade digital asset securities.
With more than 50 million people around the world investing and trading in crypto in meaningful volumes, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has recently appointed a new global head of digital assets, as did JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) in February. Goldman’s move was a noted reversal following a May earnings call in which one of its analysts questioned the legitimacy of Bitcoin (BTC) as an asset class.
- Will banks store customers’ digital asset keys and facilitate transacting on crypto platforms, and, if so, how; or will they require customers to engage another provider to de-risk that function?
- Particularly given the increase in crypto block trading, what prime service offerings can reduce or eliminate the potential for broken trades and theft of assets?
- How can crypto businesses manage the fragmentation of instrument pricing and reporting?
- How can crypto businesses navigate the rapidly changing and complex regulatory landscape?
Kristin Boggiano is the president and a co-founder of CrossTower and was formerly the chief legal officer of crypto exchange software provider AlphaPoint. Before that, she served as a structured products lawyer at Schulte Roth where she handled cases related to CDOs, CLOs and credit derivatives. Kristin has also worked as a regulatory lawyer on Dodd–Frank policymaking and rulemaking, as well as cases involving hedge funds and other institutions invested in digital assets. Kristin is the founder of the Digital Asset Regulatory Legal Alliance for general counsels.