Major Crypto Firms and Organizations Form Consortium to Promote "Market Integrity"

Circle’s Dante Disparte said: “Harmonizing a broad global approach to competition in the digital asset and digital currency space could improve U.S. competitiveness, security, and reduce the base cost of fundamental financial access.”

Several cryptocurrency exchanges and advocacy groups from different countries have joined forces to form a coalition aimed at combating market manipulation.

In a statement on Monday, market monitoring firm Solidus Labs and exchanges such as Bitstamp, Coinbase, BitMEX and CrossTower said they would form the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition (CMIC), asking all other companies involved in the crypto space to follow suit. Members must commit to encouraging “a fair digital asset market that combats market abuse and manipulation, and promotes public and regulatory confidence in cryptocurrencies,” the CMIC said.

The group’s 17 founding members include the U.S. crypto advocacy group the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the U.K.’s self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK, and the international think tank Global Digital Finance. In addition, crypto data provider CryptoCompare, Anchorage Digital, the first crypto company to be licensed by the U.S. national banking regulator, and Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, have also joined the consortium.

The CMIC’s commitments include “maintaining a fair and orderly market for digital assets and preventing market abuse.” The group said it plans to eventually share its own research on cryptocurrencies and establish a dialogue with regulators to consider developing a framework for data sharing and sharing monitoring .

Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, said: “Coordinating a broad global approach to competition in the digital asset and digital currency space can improve U.S. competitiveness, security, and reduce the underlying cost of access to fundamental finance. CMIC's commitment will bring together the industry's leading players to jointly advance standards of market integrity."

According to the CMIC website, the pledge requires members to agree to the following:

“Regardless of regulatory requirements, there should be ongoing review and monitoring of market activity on a reasonable basis to detect and eliminate market manipulation and unfair market abuse. Clearly fraudulent and manipulative practices are illegal and we are committed to doing our best Work hard to prevent these activities."

Crypto companies and industry leaders have formed other groups aimed at addressing the challenges between mainstream adoption and regulators. In September 2020, Square (now Block) launched a consortium aimed at bringing together cryptocurrency and blockchain-related patents to “defend against patent attackers and malicious attackers.” In February 2021, Chainlink, Aave, Messari and others launched the GoodFi Alliance to focus on advancing education and research in decentralized finance.