Digital Assets Firms Launch Crypto Market Integrity Coalition

In an effort to build “safer” crypto markets, 17 exchanges, trading firms and industry associations have formed the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition (CMIC) to focus on cultivating a fair digital asset marketplace to combat market abuse and manipulation and promote public and regulatory confidence in the new asset class.

The group, led by Solidus Labs, which initiated the project, says is currently inviting all industry members committed to advancing market integrity to join the coalition. Through the pledge, the coalition says it seeks to send an unequivocal message at a critical moment in the evolution of digital assets, that the crypto industry has made “enormous strides to improve market integrity” in the past few years and that crypto firms are keenly aware of the concerns that still need to be addressed, and are committed to engaging with regulators to advance solutions to crypto’s unique challenges.

“The public and regulators have made their concerns clear, and the pledge’s initial goal is to bring unity and action at an industry level, across CeFi, DeFi and all digital assets,” says Asaf Meir, co-founder and chief executive of Solidus Labs. “Crypto is in a very different place than it was three or four years ago – there are crypto firms today with more robust and technologically advanced risk and compliance programs than traditional institutions.

“We want to convey that to the public, as well as our deep commitment to addressing current and future challenges – as new forms of risk and manipulation continue to arise and evolve.”

The market integrity pledge introduced by the coalition is focused on a commitment to continuously strive towards higher standards of market integrity, risk monitoring, consumer protection and compliance, in order to maintain fair and orderly digital asset markets and prevent market abuse. The pledge identifies key forms of market manipulation and provides transparency into the kinds of abusive trading behaviours the signatories are striving to root out of markets, to enable a safe and fair environment.

CMIC says it will continue to engage with more leaders in the digital asset community to encourage more firms to take the pledge and demonstrate commitment to market integrity. Over time, the coalition says it will take further steps, including advancing training programmes, sharing insights and research, engaging with regulators, and considering data-sharing and shared-surveillance frameworks that can address crypto and decentralised finance’s cross-market supervision challenges.

Along with Solidus Labs, Anchorage Digital, BitMex, Bitstamp, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, Circle, Coinbase, CrossTower, CryptoCompare, CryptoUK, Elwood Technologies, Global Digital Finance, GSR, Huobi Tech, LibertyCity Ventures, MV Index Solutions, and Securrency, have been named as founder members of CMIC.