The US Treasury Department has released a much-anticipated report on emerging trends in the financial sector, including cryptocurrency.
The seminal report is addressed to President Trump and is designed to outline ways to remove bureaucratic barriers to economic innovation and encourage experimentation.
Here’s a look at the highlights related to blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Crypto and Distributed Ledgers Set to Impact Financial Services
“Parallel to these growing improvements in data and connectivity are expanding complementary technologies, such as cloud computing and machine learning. These technologies enable firms to store vast amounts of data and efficiently increase computing resources. Unsurprisingly, for financial services firms, data analytics and machine learning (or artificial intelligence) are two of the top three areas of tech investment. Other technology developments that are poised to impact innovation in financial services include advances in cryptography and distributed ledger technologies, giving rise to blockchain-based networks.”
US Regulation of Crypto Remains Unclear
“Treasury acknowledges that some firms may have had reason to believe that their activities might be subject to regulation and chose not to bring their activities to the attention of regulators. See, e.g., Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coin Center, Framework for Securities Regulation of Cryptocurrencies (Jan. 2016), available at: https://coincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SECFramework2.5.pdf (noting that some cryptocurrencies may ‘functionally resemble securities’ when sold to investors).”