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Recently, the Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a rare joint statement on activities involving digital assets. In the joint statement, the leaders reminded those involved in digital assets, such as cryptocurrency and other blockchain-related tokens, of their anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
The leaders emphasized that whether a digital asset qualifies as a security, commodity, or some other regulated asset depends on the facts and circumstances underlying the asset, activity or service and not the terminology utilized when discussing or describing the digital asset. Based on the results of a facts and circumstances analysis, the issuers of that digital asset may be regulated for BSA/AML/CFT purposes by the CFTC, FinCEN, the SEC, the National Futures Association, or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
This joint statement highlights the regulators’ view that, regardless of whether the digital asset qualifies as a security, commodity, or some other regulated asset, the regulatory regime for digital assets is here to stay, and key regulatory bodies are focused on ensuring BSA/AML/CFT obligations are met by those in the industry.
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