Is lack of regulatory clarity the biggest challenge in the crypto markets? Circle’s CEO thinks so

In a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) Reddit Thread, both the CEO and Co-founder of Circle, a crypto finance company backed by Goldman Sachs, said that the biggest problem facing the crypto space right now is the uncertain clarity from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a distinct definition of different crypto assets.

Jeremy Allaire (CEO) and Sean Neville (Co-founder) in collaboration with other team members of the company, started the AMA thread on January 10. The primary purpose of the thread was to discuss with members of the crypto community about different areas of the industry.

The AMA session became more interesting after a Redditor asked about Circle’s efforts in educating regulatory bodies.

“What is Circle doing to educate regulators? What’s the biggest regulatory hurdle you face?” Redditor beeef21 questioned.

Responding to the question, Allaire explained that regulators such as the SEC lacks special guidelines which in turn affects the activities in the crypto space.

“The biggest and most immediate regulatory hurdle we face is the lack of specific guidance from the SEC on how to classify various crypto assets. We believe many are clearly currencies and commodities, and there needs to be more specificity on what are really securities. This can unlock a lot of market activity, and also clearly enable the growth of a market for crypto-based securities,” Circle’s CEO answered.

Cryptocurrency Taxation

Moving further, 47-year old Allaire stated crypto-to-crypto transactions should be subjected to different tax conditions, and that France is leading the race in this regards.

In November, Coinfomania reported how France wants to show other governments how to regulate ICOs and crypto-related activities including taxation. At that time, Fabrice Heuvrard, one of the auditors working with a tax force team set up by the France authorities, stated that “the (cryptocurrency) community is ready to pay taxes as long as they are not confiscatory.”

Privacy-Focused Cryptocurrencies

Another topic of discussion that received attention on the AMA thread was the issue of privacy cryptocurrencies such as Monero (XMR) with Redditors asking how Circle is handling regulators in that aspect.

This was clarified by Robert Bench, chief compliance officer and head regulatory counsel for Circle, who stated that there are currently no specific rules for such privacy-focused coins in the US. He, however, mentioned that Circle could use such assets for its customers’ risk assessment.

In August, a special agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated that these privacy altcoins such as Monero (XMR), Verge (XVG) and Zcash (ZEC) are no more as anonymous as people think. According to the DEA official, the agency “now have ways of tracking” these coins.