US SEC says stablecoins aren’t securities that require registration
House and Senate versions of a stablecoin bill already have been reported out of committee
[WASHINGTON] Stablecoin issuers and exchanges got a boost on Friday (Apr 4) from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the agency’s staff determined that the assets, generally, are not securities.
That means they will not have to be registered with the markets regulator.
The determination applies as long as a crypto asset is backed by a stable currency such as the US dollar, a commodity such as gold or a pool of other assets, the staff said.
“The SEC just drew a clear line: stablecoins backed one-for-one with high quality liquid assets – such as USDC – are NOT securities,” Heath Tarbert, president of stablecoin provider Circle Internet Group, said. “This certainty does not extend to other digital assets just because they call themselves ‘stablecoins’.”
A definitive decision about whether a stablecoin must be registered with the SEC still must be done on a case-by-case basis, the SEC said in a footnote.
The determination is likely to help stablecoin legislation and a forthcoming digital asset market-structure bill move through Congress.
House and Senate versions of a stablecoin bill already have been reported out of committee. The House Financial Services Committee is set to hold its first hearing on a market-structure bill next week. BLOOMBERG
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