New Self Regulatory Body to Be Jointly Formed by 4 Leading Crypto Exchanges

By Kapil Gauhar

BTC Wires: Four leading crypto exchanges – Gemini, bitFlyer USA, Bittrex and Bitstamp; have come together to create a new SRO or self-regulatory organization. By coordinating in a cohesive fashion, the SRO will try to develop a uniform set of rules and regulation that is expected to set the tone for regulatory aspects affecting the blockchain industry. The idea was suggested by Gemini Exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss several months ago. Being given shape only now, the proposed SRO is named the Virtual Commodity Association Working Group. The Group will involve itself in drafting sets of regulatory measures after lobbying and determining the best course of action to check industry problems such as frauds and scams.

The SRO group, if taken seriously by government regulatory bodies, could transform the face of the crypto industry by introducing a clear framework of monitoring and regulating it. It is conjectured that the implementation is being spearheaded by the Winklevoss brothers who also head the Gemini exchange and who had been the minds behind conceptualising the SRO. Five months ago, Cameron Winklevoss had explained a similar idea through a personal post on the Medium.

There he’d said that such a body would promote virtual asset markets that are compliant and responsible by coming up with a set of industry-sponsored regulations which could also have a positive impact on efficiency, price discovery and most importantly, transparency. This idea isn’t particularly unique since similar models exists in the equities and securities sectors, with industry-appointed regulatory experts working closely with government regulators to strike a balance between innovation and preventing scams. However, it still is a very functional one since it could herald a new era for the compliance aspect of the industry.

Dave Weisberger, the Coinroutes founder remarked that it is a great development to see rival exchanges come together to work for the overall betterment of the industry. He also said that since many institutions find it hard to trust data quality and justness in the crypto sector, having an SRO from within the field could restore some faith in the transparency and reliability of crypto exchanges or firms.

The Winklevoss brothers have been having a rather tough time of late and this development marks an important victory for them after a rough year. After 2017’s bull run, Gemini Exchange has had low trading values, with the brothers’ personal crypto holdings also falling in value, bringing their net worth down. Besides, the fact that their proposal for ETF was turned down by the SEC made it worse by cancelling a potential development and also changing the market’s mood towards them. Now their idea being implemented does appear to be the silver lining to the cloud 2018 has turned out to be.