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According to Ashley Alder, chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), an association of market regulators, a joint body tasked with global crypto regulation is desperately needed and could become a reality within the next year.
Alder was speaking at a think tank called the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum's online conference (OMFIF). The growth of digital currency markets and their increasing connection to mainstream finance, according to Alder, who is also the CEO of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, has made crypto a top focus area for regulators around the world.
"Crypto has obviously rocketed up the agenda," Alder said, noting that crypto is now one of the three "C's" that regulators are focusing on, along with COVID and climate change.
This week, the financial world has been focusing on cryptocurrency as markets have crashed, exacerbated by the collapse of the stablecoin terraUSD (UST). Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at a 16-month low early Thursday.
"If you look at the risks we need to address, they are multiple, and there is a wall of worry about [crypto] in the conversations at an institutional level," Alder said.
A global group to coordinate crypto rules, according to Alder, is clearly required. Despite the importance of crypto in the global conversation, Alder stated that global climate finance efforts are "far ahead" of crypto regulation.
"There isn't anything like that for crypto at the moment," Alder said, adding that this will most likely change by the same time next year.
By fLEXI tEAM