The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will add two new offices: one devoted to crypto assets and another devoted to industrial applications and services separate from pharmaceutical products, the agency announced in a statement.
The SEC's new Office of Crypto Assets, and its new Office of Industrial Applications and Services, will join seven existing offices under its Division of Corporation Finance's Disclosure Review Program (DRP) later this fall.
“As a result of recent growth in the crypto asset and the life sciences industries, we saw a need to provide greater and more specialized support in the DRP's Office of Finance and its Office of Life Sciences," said Renee Jones, director of the DRP. "The creation of these new offices will enable the DRP to enhance its focus in the areas of crypto assets, financial institutions, life sciences, and industrial applications and services and facilitate our ability to meet our mission."
“Assigning companies and filings to [the Office of Crypto Assets] will enable the DRP to better focus its resources and expertise to address the unique and evolving filing review issues related to crypto assets,” the statement read.
Reuters reported that cryptocurrencies and other digital assets remain, for the most part, an unregulated sector.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler has advocated for more regulation of the crypto industry, which, according to Reuters has seen slowing demand in recent months due to economic circumstances occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine war, rising inflation and the responses to it by the Federal Reserve Bank. Gensler has argued that the crypto exchanges and other intermediaries should be registered with the SEC as securities exchanges and broker-dealers.
Yet a bill introduced by Sens. Cynthia M. Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) would, if enacted, give regulatory authority over cryptocurrency to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—the industry’s preference—rather than SEC.
The newly announced Office of Industrial Applications and Services will be unrelated to the Office of Crypto Assets. According to the SEC's statement, the Office of Industrial Applications and Services “will be responsible for the non-pharma, non-biotech, and non-medicinal products companies currently assigned to the Office of Life Sciences. In recent years, the life sciences industry has experienced significant growth, which has added to the number of filings and companies assigned to that office. Transitioning a subset of these companies to a separate group will allow the DRP staff to better build specialized expertise in this space.”