U.S. SEC Setting up New Office to Look After Crypto Filings

cryptonews.com:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is advancing its plans to establish a new office tasked with filings related to crypto assets. The agency expects the new entity will be established later this fall.

Under the plan, the new Office of Crypto Assets will be set up along with an Office of Industrial Applications and Services, the American regulator said in a statement. 

Renee Jones, Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, said the "creation of these new offices will enable the division's Disclosure Review Program (DRP) to enhance its focus in the areas of crypto assets, financial institutions, life sciences, and industrial applications and services and facilitate our ability to meet our mission."

"The Office of Crypto Assets will continue the work currently performed across the DRP to review filings involving crypto assets. Assigning companies and filings to one office will enable the DRP to better focus its resources and expertise to address the unique and evolving filing review issues related to crypto assets," according to the statement.

The new office is likely to manage the regulator’s probes focused on crypto businesses.

Earlier this year, the SEC reportedly initiated a string of inquiries into the activities of numerous crypto exchanges, aiming to determine whether the companies have adequate safeguards in place to prevent insider trading. A "person with direct knowledge of the inquiry" said that the agency had sent a letter to an unnamed major crypto exchange in which it demanded information about how the business protects its users from insider trading. The source claimed the inquiry covers a number of other exchanges.

The letter was filed following the terraUSD (UST) stablecoin crash and