Gemini crypto exchange belonging to Winklevoss brothers, together with three other exchanges, declared the formation of the Virtual Commodity Association that might become a prototype of the self-regulating association of cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. The organization’s goal is to develop common standards, which are now absent in the cryptocurrency industry, as well as to increase investors’ confidence in the market. Bitstamp, Bittrex, and bitFlyer USA became the association’s first members in addition to Gemini.
The absence in the list of participants of the largest American crypto exchange Coinbase strikes the eye, not to mention the refusal of its representatives from any comments on this initiative.
The first meeting of the new association is scheduled for September, and the agenda promises to be rich. Both regulators and potential investors see one of the major problems the opacity of the market.
On different stock exchanges, the same assets are traded at different prices in the absence of any verification or authoritative source of market data.
According to a source close to the association, this will be one of the first points to deal with for the participants of the group.
According to Dave Weisberger, the founder of CoinRoutes, more transparency is exactly what is needed not only for investors but for the exchanges itself, as institutional investors are extremely skeptical about the reliability and quality of data in the crypto market.
“We help our clients consolidate the data, there is a lot of concern over the quality of the exchange data we aggregate as well as underlying manipulation. An industry SRO is a great start towards ameliorating those concerns,"- he said in the interview with Business Insider.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- Recently, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission has denied Winklevosses application for Bitcoin-ETF registration. The brothers faced a trading volume drop on their Gemini crypto exchange and a depreciation of their cryptocurrency reserves.