Having both been put under the cosh by financial regulators, Binance and Ripple have now outlined their visions for how the crypto industry should be governed.
Binance has spent the last year facing intense regulatory scrutiny in several countries – including Japan, Hong Kong, Italy and the UK – over issues such as money laundering controls. In September the firm set out a plan to centralise its business structure to, as CEO Changpeng Zhao put it, “work well with regulators”.
Now, the exchange is calling for a global regulatory framework governing crypto markets, saying that it is working with policymakers to “achieve the mutual goal of protecting users, while allowing innovation to continue in a responsible manner, ensuring a healthy trajectory forward for the industry”.
Having seen its reputation tarnished, the company has also set out its own 10 “fundamental rights” to protect users, covering issues such as privacy, robust levels of liquidity, and strong KYC processes.
Meanwhile, Ripple – which has this year faced litigation from the SEC – has set out its own “real approach” to cryptocurrency and digital asset regulation in the US, which, as it happens would limit the regulator’s role in policing crypto currencies.
Ripple says that private-public collaboration must by at the heart of any legislative proposals and also argues that existing financial regulatory plans can be adapted to regulate cryptocurrencies.
In October, Coinbase, fresh from its own tussle with the SEC, called for the creation of a new US regulator to oversee digital assets, arguing that “laws drafted in the 1930s to facilitate effective oversight of our financial system could not contemplate this technological revolution”.