Self-Regulatory Organizations Growing Alongside New U.S. Crypto Regulation

cointelegraph.com:

As the adoption of crypto takes off, the industry is exerting increasing influence on American society. This can be seen in its lobbying efforts and political action committees, for example, and in its own organizational efforts, such as business associations that promote it at the state, regional and national levels. Another way crypto is influencing society is through self-regulation. 

The broader impact of self-regulation may be less apparent than when a PAC finances a political campaign or a startup is nurtured in a crypto industry-sponsored accelerator, and that limited visibility probably reflects the extent of self-regulatory organizations’ (SROs) influence at present. But SROs are helping shape the crypto industry itself, and they may eventually have a role in the crypto regulatory framework that is beginning to come out of the U.S. federal government.

The first crypto SROs formed outside the United States. The Virtual Commodity Association, proposed by Gemini in March 2018, is considered the first attempt to create a U.S. crypto SRO. Its stated mission is “to establish an industry-sponsored, self-regulatory organization (SRO) designation for U.S. cryptocurrency marketplaces to oversee virtual commodity marketplaces.” To that end, it formed as a working group with Gemini and bitFlyer as members, and established an assortment of committees the following year. The organization is not yet very active.

Later in 2018, a group of ten financial and tech firms created the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM). According to the ADAM website, it now has 31 members and five partnering law firms.

Robert Baldwin, head of policy at ADAM, told Cointelegraph the organization is a standard-setting body that seeks to protect