Crypto assets are no longer niche and regulators need to catch up — IMF

cointelegraph.com:

The past few years have seen crypto assets moved from being “niche products” to having more of a mainstream presence, prompting the need for more comprehensive regulation of the space, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a new report authored by IMF capital markets director Aditya Narain and assistant director Marina Moretti, officials noted that crypto assets have firmly shifted away from being “niche products” to ones used for speculative investments, hedges against weak currencies, and payment instruments.

The authors added that this, along with  recent failures of crypto issuers, exchanges, and hedge funds have “added impetus to the push to regulate.”

The failures of crypto issuers, exchanges and hedge funds have added impetus to the push to regulate these digital assets. Read more in F&D. https://t.co/Vfyr4uN6NY pic.twitter.com/4LF9P3DZpc

However, developing regulatory frameworks for crypto assets is an uphill battle, according to Narain and Moretti, highlighting the market's rapid evolution, the difficulty of monitoring, and the absence of workable skills between regulators among the more serious obstacles, stating:

The authors have also called out the inconsistent approach to crypto regulation amongst various regulators, instead arguing for a coordinated, consistent, and comprehensive global crypto regulatory framework.

"Some regulators may prioritize consumer protection, others safety and soundness or financial integrity. And there is a range of crypto actors — miners, validators, protocol developers — that are not easily covered by traditional financial regulation," they explained.

Regulators around the world have continued to gather around the regulatory table.

In Europe, the final legal text for