U.S. cryptocurrency owners won’t be able to participate in regulatory development

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has published a notice stating that any officials who own cryptocurrencies cannot participate in the development of industry regulation.

The U.S. already has regulations that prohibit stock and securities owners from participating in the creation of regulations related to the relevant industries.

However, in this case, there is a certain threshold after which an official is prohibited from working on regulation.

With cryptocurrencies, however, the situation is slightly different:

“An employee who owns any amount of cryptocurrencies or stabelcoins must not participate in certain work if he knows that the work has a direct impact on the value of his cryptocurrencies or stabelcoins.”

The notice cites an example in which an employee who owned only $100 worth of Stablecoins was still not allowed to work on regulating the industry. The ban is imposed until “the employee relinquishes ownership of that Stablecoin.”

The new rules apply to all federal employees, including employees of the White House, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. However, there is a small exception in the restrictions – officials can invest in funds that invest in companies that generate income in the cryptocurrency industry.

However, such investments cannot exceed $50,000. The rationale behind the exception is that such investments “are considered investments in diversified funds.”

Recall that earlier the Belgian regulator proposed to regulate cryptocurrencies as securities.