New York Attorney General Seeks New Crypto Powers for State Regulators: Report

The New York Department of Financial Services would have stronger authority to regulate digital assets, with exchanges having to reimburse customers if they’re the victims of fraud, under a bill proposed by the state’s Attorney General Letitia James on Friday, according to media reports.

In recent months James has taken actions involving crypto companies Celsius, KuCoin and Nexo, claiming a number of crypto tokens are commodities or securities despite a considerable gray area over the scope of existing law, and the bill would also give her extra enforcement powers, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

In March, James’ suit against KuCoin claimed that tokens including ether (ETH) constitute securities that should have been registered with her office, and in a case against CoinEx made similar claims about the LUNA token connected with hte now-defunct stablecoin terraUSD.

The bill must still be agreed by state lawmakers to pass into law.

Earlier this week, Alex Mashinsky, founder of Celsius, denied claims by James that he had misled investors about the crypto lender before it filed for bankruptcy last year, saying that James had cherry picked statements made to investors.