【经济学人精读——美国加密货币监管】

本文由乌鲁木齐新东方学校整理发布，欢迎联系预约试听

Regulators put the future of America’s crypto industry in doubt
Firms will head tofriendlier waters监管机构使美国的加密货币行业的未来变得不确定

Taylor swift’s record-smashing “Eras” tour could end up being one of the most lucrative in musical history, possibly even minting the world’s newest billionaire. But Ms Swift has another thing going for her personal finances. When courted to invest in ftx, a now defunct crypto exchange, she reportedly balked: “Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?”泰勒·斯威夫特纪录破碎的“时代”巡回演唱会可能成为音乐史上最赚钱的之一，甚至有可能成为世界上最新的亿万富翁。但斯威夫特在个人财务方面还有一件事。当被邀请投资已关闭的加密货币交易所ftx时，据报道她犹豫了：“你能告诉我这些不是未注册的证券吗？”

American regulators are asking similar questions. On June 6th the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec) sued Coinbase, the country’s largest crypto exchange, for failing to register as a broker, exchange or clearinghouse of securities. When markets opened, Coinbase’s share price dropped by a fifth. The day before the sec had sued Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange—alleging both that it offered securities-trading services without the necessary registrations, and that it had placed customer funds in a trading outfit owned by its boss, Changpeng Zhao. Binance rejected all the allegations and said it would “vigorously defend” itself.美国监管机构也在问类似的问题。6月6日，美国证券交易委员会（SEC）对美国最大的加密货币交易所Coinbase提起诉讼，指控其未注册为经纪人、交易所或证券清算机构。Coinbase的股价在市场开盘时下跌了五分之一。在此之前一天，SEC还起诉了全球最大的加密货币交易所币安，指控其提供未经必要注册的证券交易服务，并将客户资金投资于其老板赵长鹏拥有的交易公司。币安否认了所有指控，并表示将“积极捍卫”自己的权益。

At the core of both lawsuits is the idea that many cryptocurrencies are in fact securities. American law defines securities to include any “investment contract” that produces an asset for which an owner can expect to accrue returns depending on the effort of a promoter. The sec has suggested bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, does not meet this standard. It has also avoided making definitive statements about ether, the second most valuable token. But Gary Gensler, the sec’s chairman, has made clear that he thinks most other cryptocurrenciesfit the bill.这两起诉讼的核心观点是，许多加密货币实际上是证券。美国法律将证券定义为任何“投资合同”，根据该合同，持有人可以预期根据推广者的努力获得回报的资产。SEC已表示，全球最有价值的加密货币比特币不符合这一标准。SEC也避免就以太币这第二有价值的代币做出明确的表态。但SEC主席加里·根斯勒明确表示，他认为大多数其他加密货币符合该标准。

Absent legislation or friendlier regulators, the lawsuitsplace the fate of America’s crypto industry in judicial hands. An entity’s issuance ofcrypto tokens is strikingly similar to the issuance of equity shares. If the organisation does well, the value of its tokens goes up. This makes it hard to argue they are not securities. The flipside is that some cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, do not have such a promoter, since there is no centralised outfit that stands to profit from the token’s growth. And others, like some stablecoins, are used mainly for liquidity, such as facilitating trade within a crypto protocol, rather than investment.在缺乏立法或友好监管机构的情况下，这些诉讼将决定美国加密货币行业的命运。一个实体发行加密代币与发行股权份额有着惊人的相似之处。如果组织表现良好，其代币价值会上涨。这使得很难辩称它们不是证券。另一方面，一些加密货币（如比特币）没有这样的推广者，因为没有一个集中的机构能从该代币的增长中获利。而其他加密货币（如某些稳定币）主要用于提供流动性，例如促进加密协议内的交易，而不是作为投资。

Coinbase is listed in America. Binance, which has no formal headquarters, is a trickier case. It separated American operations from international ones, but regulators say it turned a blind eye to Americans trading on the international platform. The sec’s lawsuit notes a damning message sent by its chief operating officer to colleagues: “We are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the usa bro.”Coinbase在美国上市。而币安没有正式总部，这是一个棘手的情况。币安将美国业务与国际业务分开，但监管机构表示其对美国人在国际平台上交易视而不见。SEC的诉讼中指出了其首席运营官发给同事的一条致命信息：“我们正在作为一个该死的未经许可的证券交易所在美国运营。”

The exchanges, for their part, argue that the sec is “regulating by enforcement” and has failed to provide clear guidelines on what is permitted. In this narrow sense, they may have a point. If the rules had been clear earlier then years of investment and talent could have been better allocated.交易所反驳说SEC在“通过执法进行监管”，并未提供明确的允许指南。就这个狭义上说，他们可能是有道理的。如果规则早些时候就明确，那么多年的投资和人才可能会得到更好的配置。

There are two big implications of America’s crackdown. First, if the sec wins, America could in effect join the 25 of 45 markets tracked by the Atlantic Council, a think-tank, that have fully or partly banned crypto. Even if regulators create a path for firms to exist within the law, crypto’s value will shrink, as it becomes more difficult to avoid the costly red tape that applies to regular financial institutions.美国的打击行动有两个重要影响。首先，如果SEC获胜，美国实际上可能加入到45个受到大西洋理事会追踪的市场中的25个已完全或部分禁止加密货币的市场。即使监管机构为公司在法律框架内生存创造了一条道路，加密货币的价值也将下降，因为避免适用于常规金融机构的昂贵繁文缛节变得更加困难。

Second, more crypto firms will move to places with friendlier regulation and shun doing business in America altogether. Dubai will be one winner. It hasset up a specialist crypto regulator and opened its arms to offices from Binance, Crypto.com and Bybit.The game of regulatory cat-and-mouse is not over just yet. 其次，更多的加密货币公司将迁往监管更友好的地方，完全避免在美国开展业务。迪拜将是其中的受益者之一。迪拜已经设立了专门的加密货币监管机构，并向币安、Crypto.com和Bybit等公司敞开了大门。监管与逃避监管之间的博弈还未结束。