Crypto companies told CNBC they want clarity around rules and are pushing governments to come up with frameworks for them to operate. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission has used existing securities rules to target cryptocurrency firms.
Griffith said that the U.K.’s regulatory approach would mix both existing regulations and new ones.
“Wherever possible, we want to see the same asset, the same transaction regulated in the same way. But there are some additional opportunities in the crypto asset or distributed ledger space and we want to take advantage of that,” Griffith told CNBC.
The lawmaker pointed to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is currently working its way through Parliament, as an example of where upcoming legislation already includes some provisions on cryptocurrency. That specific law, which is not yet in force, aims to bring asset-backed stablecoins into the regulatory fold.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to mirror real-world assets such as the U.S. dollar. They are often backed by real assets such as bonds or fiat currencies.
Distributed ledger technology, sometimes called blockchain, refers to multiple records of transactions that are not owned by a single entity. They may be shared and updated at the same time to ensure accuracy for all the parties involved in a transaction.
