Major crypto firms and groups form coalition aimed at promoting 'market integrity'

Several cryptocurrency exchanges and advocacy groups across different countries have banded together to form a coalition intended to fight market manipulation.

In a Monday announcement, market surveillance firm Solidus Labs and exchanges including Bitstamp, Coinbase, BitMEX and CrossTower said they would be launching the Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, or CMIC, asking all other companies involved in the crypto space to follow their example. According to the CMIC, members must pledge to encourage “a fair digital asset marketplace to combat market abuse and manipulation and promote public and regulatory confidence” in crypto.

The group’s 17 founding members includes U.S.-based crypto advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce, United Kingdom-based self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK, and international think tank Global Digital Finance. In addition, crypto data provider CryptoCompare, Anchorage Digital, the first crypto firm to receive a charter from the national bank regulator in the United States, and Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, have joined the coalition.

CMIC’s pledge includes a commitment to “maintain fair and orderly digital asset markets and prevent market abuse.” The group said it planned to eventually share its own research into crypto as well as establish a dialogue with regulators and consider a data-sharing and shared-surveillance framework.

“Harmonizing a broad global approach to digital assets and competition in the digital currency space race, can improve U.S. competitiveness, security and lower fundamental costs for basic financial access,” said Circle chief strategy officer and head of global policy Dante Disparte. “CMIC’s pledge brings leading industry participants together to advance market integrity standards.”

According to the CMIC website, the pledge asks that members agree to the following:

“Regardless of regulatory requirements, market activity should be reviewed and monitored on a reasonable ongoing basis for purposes of detecting and eliminating market manipulation and unfair market abuses. Clear instances of fraud and manipulation are illegal, and we will commit to preventing these activities to the best of our ability.”

Crypto firms and industry leaders have formed other groups aimed at addressing challenges in mainstream adoption and between regulators. In September 2020, Square — now Block — started a consortium aimed at pooling crypto- and blockchain-related patents to “defend against patent aggressors and trolls.” In February 2021, Chainlink, Aave, Messari and others launched the GoodFi alliance to focus on furthering education and research into decentralized finance.