PH SEC Reviewing Final Guidelines for ICO and Virtual Currency Exchanges

Speaking with the Manila Times, SEC Chairman Emilio Aquino said that the guidelines are now underway in part due to increased interest in the space. “We want that out already because these are additional products,” said Chairman Aquino to the local newspaper.

The SEC released draft ICO guidelines last August 2018. The draft guidelines included how tokens are classified, how the assessment will proceed, and what are the rules on registration and exemption. Basically, the draft explains that if the SEC determines that the ICO is not issuing security tokens, then it can proceed. Otherwise, it will have to go through the registration process.

The draft guidelines’ version was released on December 2018, which included inputs from those who submitted their position papers to the Commission. In this new paper, the SEC revised the definition of “blockchain,” now defined as a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions in a particular token or tokens. Also, the paper said that an independent escrow agent is not necessary if the token issuer can prove to the Commission that other mechanisms can be employed to satisfy the purposes of such escrow agents.

The SEC never publicly released any draft rules for cryptocurrency exchanges, but from this website’s multiple discussions with members of the blockchain community, it is revealed that many are waiting for this particular draft rules before they launch their own exchanges.

To create the crypto exchange rules, the SEC will be reviewing rules from other countries like Switzerland to serve as possible templates to formulate the countries’ own rules. When completed, these rules will go hand in hand with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s guidelines for virtual currency exchanges.

This story originally appeared on BitPinas: PH SEC Reviewing Final Guidelines for ICO and Virtual Currency Exchanges