A Call For A More Nuanced Take On Digital Asset Regulation

Many of the regulations that are currently applied to digital assets equate all digital assets with shares of stock or futures contracts. Likewise, regulators have applied traditional financial services regulatory concepts broadly to blockchains and the digital assets recorded on them, without regard for the differences among digital assets and the ways they are used.

In this piece, Joe Castelluccio, co-leader of Mayer Brown’s Digital Assets, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency group, argues that this current one-size-fits-all approach to regulating digital assets does not accomplish the goals of regulation and stifles innovation. Instead, legislators and regulators should focus on the ways in which most blockchains are used and make more nuanced distinctions between different types of digital assets. The goal of this effort should be to achieve regulatory clarity that advances the missions of protecting investors, promoting capital formation and instilling market integrity.