From being niche products, crypto assets now have more of a mainstream presence. Seeing this transformation, the International Monetary Fund has called for more comprehensive regulation of the space.
Aditya Narain, IMF capital markets director, and Marina Moretti, the assistant director, in a new report said crypto assets have firmly shifted away from being niche products to ones used for speculative investments, hedges opposing weak currencies, and payment instruments. The report says exchanges and hedge funds, along with the recent failures of crypto issuers, have added impetus to the push to regulate.
Narain and Moretti noted that developing regulatory frameworks for crypto assets is an uphill battle. The report acknowledged that regulators are struggling to acquire the talent and learn the skills to keep pace given stretched resources and many other priorities. Narain and Moretti called out the inconsistent approach to crypto regulation amongst various regulators and argued for a coordinated, consistent, and comprehensive global regulatory framework.
The report said some regulators may prioritize consumer protection, others’ safety, soundness, or financial integrity. The authors believe a global regulatory framework will bring order to the markets, help instill consumer confidence, lay out limits on what is permissible, and provide a safe place for useful innovation to continue. The final legal text for the long-awaited Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, in Europe, is to be released within the next four to six weeks. And a crypto regulation bill in the US – the Responsible Financial Innovation Act will address some of the biggest questions facing the digital assets sector.
