In a Thursday announcement, Massachusetts-based and Circle-backed cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced it would be delisting nine cryptocurrencies for American users of its platform in light of what it called “regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. market.”
Specifically, Poloniex said it currently wasn’t able to deduce whether the assets in question were unregistered securities, i.e. illegally offered in the view of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). To err on the side of caution, the exchange committed to delisting, which will take effect on May 29th.
The soon-to-be removed cryptocurrencies will remain open for trading for all non-U.S. Poloniex users and will include the following projects:
- Ardor (ARDR)
- Augur (REP)
- Bytecoin (BCN)
- Decred (DCR)
- GameCredits (GAME)
- GAS
- Lisk (LSK)
- Omni (OMNI)
- NXT
1/ On Friday, May 29th, at 16:00 UTC, the markets for ARDR, BCN, DCR, GAME, GAS, LSK, NXT, OMNI, and REP will be disabled for Poloniex customers in the US. All assets remain available for trading to customers outside the US. https://t.co/eNWeZTjT5X
— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) May 16, 2019
Commenting on the announcement on Twitter, the Poloniex team said it remained determined to help foster and fight for pro-crypto regulatory approaches:
“We understand how frustrating this choice is for our customers and for the crypto community. We believe in the power and potential of these assets, and will continue to focus time and energy on supporting positive policy and regulatory developments for crypto assets.”
To stakeholders in America’s nook of the cryptoverse, the delisting announcement won’t necessarily come as a surprise. The country’s ambiguous regulatory thicket, wherein numerous major regulators (e.g. SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, IRS, etc.) all maintain clashing opinions on how crypto should be regulated in the U.S., has had a general chilling effect on American crypto business.
Moreover, what clarifications have been given by individual agencies there to date haven’t been comprehensive or binding enough to offer any real sense of relief.
To that end, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce noted to a group of her peers at the Securities Enforcement Forum earlier this month how she thought her organization wasn’t doing enough to make sure it didn’t stifle America’s cryptoeconomy through inaction. Peirce said:
“It is not the SEC’s overzealous action that has stifled the crypto industry, but its unwillingness to take meaningful action at all.”
Of course, what could definitively solve the nation’s crypto quagmire from the top-down is the passing of federal legislation that sets unifying rules across the board for how cryptocurrencies should be treated by regulators in the U.S.
However, such legislation has proven elusive to date, which is why the prospect of regulatory certainty for cryptocurrency is starting to become a political subject for U.S. crypto users.
Andrew Yang Leads U.S. Prez Candidates on Calling for Crypto Clarity
The 2020 U.S. Presidential contest is now just around the corner, and candidates who’ve announced their bids are already hard at work in trying to win over voters with their respective platforms.
Yet when it comes to which of these candidates’ platforms are explicitly pro-crypto, there’s only one so far: Andrew Yang’s, of #YangGang fame.
Yang, an entrepreneur who’s currently polling around one percent nationally among 2020 Democratic Party contenders, made waves in the cryptocurrency ecosystem last month after his campaign released a policy platform focused on “Crypto / Digital Asset Regulation and Consumer Protection.”
Accordingly, Yang called for an atmosphere that would support crypto innovation in America:
“Investment in cryptocurrencies and digital assets has far outpaced our regulatory frameworks in the US. We should let investors, companies, and individuals know what the landscape and treatment will be moving forward to support innovation and development. The blockchain has vast potential.”
Yang is a long-shot to make the White House in 2020, to be sure. But having such a pro-crypto attitude heading up America’s highest executive office would create a strong warming effect on American cryptocurrency businesses.
A President Yang wouldn’t be able to force pro-crypto bills through Congress by himself, but he’d definitely be able to sign them into law if such legislation were to hit his desk.