FINRA Issues a Regulatory Notice for Firms to Let FINRA Know About Digital Asset Activities

On July 6, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), a self-regulatory organization that primarily oversees the regulation of broker-dealers, issued a new Regulatory Notice to encourage firms to notify FINRA if they engage in activities related to digital assets.

For FINRA, the Regulatory Notice is part of a greater effort to determine the extent of FINRA member involvement relating to digital assets.  To achieve its fact-finding mission, the Regulatory Notice asks that firms subjected to FINRA’s jurisdiction to notify FINRA if they or their affiliates are currently, or intent in the future to engage in any activities related to digital assets.  The Regulatory Notice provides a comprehensive list of the types of activities that might qualify as “related to digital assets,” including the purchases, sales or executions of transactions in digital assets or derivatives tied to digital assets, and the custody of digital assets.  FINRA’s request for information through the Regulatory Notice extends until July 31, 2019.  Finally, to the extent that FINRA has already been in contact with a firm about its digital asset activities, the Regulatory Notice requests that the firm notify FINRA of any changes to the firms’ activities.

Please click here to find the Regulatory Notice.

The above is a summary of one of the significant legal and regulatory actions that occurred over the past week. This alert is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all such developments, but rather a selection of publicly-reported news that may be of particular interest.  These are the Fintech updates that ties to the post Blockchain in Review – Week of July 9, 2018 from our sister blog, VirtualCurrencyReport.