FINRA grants extended deadlines for companies to report their crypto activities

Last year, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory body for brokerages and exchanges within the country requested its members to report on their involvement with crypto.

FINRA has recently extended its deadline for firms to report their involvement in crypto activities. It is presumed, that this was made due to the last week’s commotion over Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project and its potential regulation.

The initial deadline is expiring on July 31, but according FINRA’s post made late last week, the final term will be extended until the same date in 2020.

The new notice clarifies that:

"As securities regulators continue to provide guidance to members regarding the unique regulatory challenges presented by digital assets – e.g., Joint Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Digital Asset Securities – FINRA believes it is important to keep the lines of communication with members open on this important topic."

The list of crypto-related activities that FINRA outlined for its members to report include:

• purchases and sales carried out with cryptocurrencies; • creation, management or participation of a crypto exchange, fund or derivatives product; • participation in an ICO or Pre-ICO; • facilitating the clearing or distribution of cryptocurrencies; and • recording cryptocurrencies using blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

FINRA also recommended that member firms report ‘any other use of blockchain technology,’ with the only exception being if the said agency had already notified the regulatory body earlier. Regarding earlier submissions, FINRA further mentioned that “unless a change has occurred,” an additional notice is not necessary.

At the beginning of this month, FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a joint statement specified that a number of questions still require clarification before they can approve crypto companies’ applications to become broker-dealers.

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