SIFMA supported a Congressional joint resolution sponsored by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Representatives Mike Flood (R-NE) and Wiley Nickel (D-NC) to disapprove SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which prevents banks from providing custodial services to digital assets investors by requiring them to keep those assets on-balance sheet.
News & Insights
House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and a bipartisan group of legislators asked banking regulators to clarify "through guidance and other actions" that an SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin, which describes how a custodian must account for digital assets, is not enforceable.
House Financial Services Committee members Mike Flood (R-NE), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), French Hill (R-AR) and Wiley Nickel (D-NC) introduced the Uniform Treatment of Custodial Assets Act. The proposed legislation would prohibit financial institutions from including crypto assets held in their custody as a liability on their balance sheet.
In recent analysis, Fried Frank Partner Jason Schwartz addressed the IRS's recently issued notice confirming that consensus-layer staking rewards are taxed at fair market value when the staker has dominion and control over them.
SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter warned accounting firms about crypto asset trading platforms that misrepresent non-audit work when marketing to investors. Mr. Munter reminded accounting firms that they could be held legally liable for misstatements made by client companies in the crypto asset space about such work.