Davis Polk partner and ESG practice co-head Joe Hall was recently quoted in Roll Call on the SEC’s decision to allow broker-dealer firms to hold custody of digital assets for clients for a five-year trial period. Joe noted that existing digital asset regulations do not take cryptocurrencies into account. “We need to regulate [cryptocurrency] based on what it is, as opposed to trying to analogize it to other things that we are familiar with, and then trying to retrofit old regulatory structures to it,” he said. “In the absence of legislation, it is very difficult for the regulators to do that.”

SEC decision seen as first step toward brokers’ mainstream cryptocurrency use,” Roll Call (February 23, 2021)