The SEC advocates for the registration of platforms cryptomonnaies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The regulatory authorities the u.s. securities reported on Wednesday that a good number of platforms for the exchange of cryptomonnaies should be registered with regulators and subject to other rules, last sign in date to the will of public authorities to better control the field of virtual currencies.

In a press release, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes that these platforms, as “potentially illegal”, could mislead investors by calling them “scholarships”.

The SEC adds that these platforms must be registered with it either as securities exchanges national regulated either as systems to trade alternative.

Jay Clayton, the chairman of the SEC, has recently stepped up warnings against the cryptomonnaies, prompting investors to exercise caution.

A month ago, he said that the u.s. agencies of financial regulation could ask Congress to legislate to improve the supervision of virtual currencies such as bitcoin due to the risks posed by this new asset class.

According to Jay Clayton, the ICO (initial corner offerings), fundraising in cryptomonnaies, had to be surrounded with the same precautionary measures for investors that public offerings (IPO) in the context of ipos.

“The SEC staff is concerned at the number of platforms of exchange online is to present to the investors as markets affiliated with the SEC, such as markets regulated so that they are not”, adds the agency.

The bitcoin, the most well-known virtual currencies, has lost up to nearly 12%, falling to a low of one and a half weeks 9.450 dollars after the announcements of the SEC before going back to 9.760 million.

Other cryptomonnaies have also dropped, Ethereum and Ripple, giving respectively 9% and 8%, according to CoinMarketCap.

(Pete Schroeder, Benoit Van Overstraeten for the French service)