SEC to Form Office for Filings Involving Crypto Assets

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will add offices to its Division of Corporate Finance’s Disclosure Review Program (DRP), including an Office of Crypto Assets, a press release said Friday (Sept. 9).

The Office of Crypto Assets will do the work currently done across the DRP to look over filings involving cryptocurrencies.

The SEC said the assigning of companies and filings to just one office will help focus resources and expertise pertaining to crypto.

The other office being created is the Office of Industrial Applications and Services, which will work on the non-pharma, non-biotech and non-medicinal products companies that are assigned right now to the Office of Life Sciences. That industry has seen massive growth, so adding a new office will help the DRP focus expertise for those companies.

The new offices will be among seven others which review issuer filings, and the DRP said they’ll be established later in the year.

“As a result of recent growth in the crypto asset and the life sciences industries, we saw a need to provide greater and more specialized support in the DRP’s Office of Finance and its Office of Life Sciences,” said Renee Jones, director of the Division of Corporation Finance. “The creation of these new offices will enable the DRP to enhance its focus in the areas of crypto assets, financial institutions, life sciences, and industrial applications and services and facilitate our ability to meet our mission.”

The SEC has been dealing with the question of how to work with crypto, and recently, chair Gary Gensler said he supported giving more crypto oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Read more: SEC Chair Gensler Backs Granting CFTC More Crypto Oversight

PYMNTS wrote that Gensler’s reasoning was to help protect investors — so regulating bodies have to work together.

“To the extent the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) needs greater authorities with which to oversee and regulate crypto non-security tokens and related intermediaries, I look forward to working with Congress to achieve that goal consistent with maintaining the regulation of crypto security tokens and related intermediaries at the SEC,” Gensler said.