US Regulators Push Crypto Adoption with 9 Agency Actions

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have taken significant steps towards regulating the crypto industry, with nine agency actions since August 18. This includes a proposed custody framework for registered investment advisers and regulated funds, which would permit self-custody in certain circumstances.

The Innovation Exemption, granted on September 17, allows qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to trade tokenized NMS stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools. Citi has raised its 12-month forecast for Bitcoin to $113,000, citing ETF inflows and gradual adviser and brokerage allocation growth.

Clearing and custody for crypto are also becoming more mainstream, with Coinbase Clearing LLC registered as a derivatives clearing organization. The alignment of the SEC's proposals with the CFTC's market framework could support the adviser-and-brokerage allocation and tokenization forecasts.