Digital assets currently fall into a jurisdictional gray area between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and individual states. Huizenga said the recent growth of the virtual currency market had made him more comfortable with more oversight. In a time of volatile markets, hackers are also active in the sector, stealing $530 million of digital currency from Japanese exchange Coincheck last month. Bitcoin, the best known virtual currency, lost over half its value earlier this year after surging more than 1,300 per cent. The SEC is already cracking down on transactions known as initial coin offerings (ICOs), while the CFTC has identified digital assets as a commodity subject to its anti-fraud rules.

Source: The Express Tribune February 20, 2018 06:00 UTC