Blockchain and the City: New York State as a "Tough" Model of Crypto Regulation

Recently the New York Department of Financial Services granted statewide virtual currency licenses to two applicants: stock trading service Robinhood and cryptocurrency ATM operator LibertyX. The state's regulatory regime, commonly known as BitLicense, imposes a set of strict disclosure and consumer-protection requirements on any business that offers cryptocurrency-related services to New York residents.

The state has also demonstrated that it keeps close tabs on those who might be in violation of the compliance procedures: In September last year, the New York state attorney general's office published a report that raised concerns over price manipulations that were possibly taking place on cryptocurrency exchanges, and referred three of them to the state's financial regulator.

Reasons to complyFor any company somehow related to finance, the benefits of doing business in New York and with New York residents are obvious.

"Cryptocurrencies are, in essence, borderless. Regulation, in order to catch up, would also have to be borderless, crossing not only state boundaries but also national boundaries. New York is in a unique situation because it regulates a major financial center, the largest in the world. So as long as all those corporations want to remain domiciled in New York, legislators in Albany do have a jurisdictional reach that sticks. In most places in the world, if you try to regulate cryptocurrencies, they'll just move to another jurisdiction. That is bound to happen with most of cryptocurrency institutions. But that's not the case with New York.".

Vigilant New York state authorities became concerned with Bitcoin regulation fairly early: Ben Lawsky, the state's Superintendent of Financial Services, first sketched the contours of what would become BitLicense in July 2014.

During the summer of 2015, big names such as BitFinex and ShapeShift pulled out of the New York market; crypto exchange Kraken announced cessation of services to New York residents in a blog post that called BitLicense "a creature so foul, so cruel that not even Kraken possesses the courage or strength to face its nasty, big, pointy teeth." Erik Voorhees and Jesse Powell, the bosses of ShapeShift and Kraken, respectively, remained BitLicense's staunch critics, calling for the regulation's repeal ever since.

"A great part of Robinhood's value to our space will be as a leader in quasi-institutional compliance. New York is the center of traditional finance, and the state's licensing process - for good reason - prioritizes the integrity of its complex systems. For these reasons, Robinhood will be a great bridge between the two communities. Because Robinhood aims to open public access to traditional finance mechanisms, the company has a natural affinity for crypto projects and the DLT space in general."

"Long-time cryptocurrency believers may not be migrating over to the Robinhood crypto platform anytime soon due to its lack of certain features that are available on other crypto trading platforms. However, the increased trust instilled by the issuance of the BitLicense may be enough to convince current Robinhood users who are on the fence to give the service a try. Robinhood's significant user base in the state of New York will open the door to new crypto investors."

"We think that New York regulators are making a genuine effort to make the state competitive for the blockchain era. BitLicenses have been approved on a more regular basis recently. NYDFS have issued several novel approvals for crypto custody. They also have put together a very clear Q&A on their website that provides a coherent framework for companies to buy, sell, hold, and transmit cryptoassets in a compliant manner."A lot of us think that the financial services industry will run on a blockchain.

New York has gravitated toward a tight regulatory model that, at least according to the majority of state representatives, fits its status of the global financial center the best.