Bitcoin Daily: Fed Reserve Could Add Bitcoin To Stress Tests; Thai SEC Bans 3 Cryptos

The U.S. Federal Reserve has announced amendments to a policy statement on the scenario design framework for stress testing, which could soon include a potential cryptocurrency market crash as one of the market risks.

In a document published on the Federal Reserve website, the board of governors revealed amendments to a policy statement, stating that “the collapse of the bitcoin market” may be one of the salient market risks.

“One commenter recommended that the Board incorporate events in the stress tests that are not in the historical record in scenarios, and that the Board allow the list of variables included in the scenarios to change,” the document disclosed. “Similarly, a commenter expressed support for the incorporation in the stress tests of shocks unlike those already experienced, since firms should be prepared to withstand events beyond those already endured. The commenter recommended that the Board consider extraordinary shocks, such as a war with North Korea, the collapse of the bitcoin market, or major losses caused by trader misconduct, in its scenarios.”

In other news, Rhode Island lawmakers have filed a bill to exempt certain blockchain tokens from securities laws.

Five Democratic and Republican senators submitted House bill 5595 last week, which aims to amend the Rhode Island Uniform Securities Act so that developers or sellers of “open blockchain tokens” are exempt from the act if certain criteria are met, including the developer or seller filing a notice of intent with the secretary of state or the purpose of the token being for a consumptive purpose.

In addition, the developers or sellers of a token cannot sell tokens to the initial buyer as a financial investment.

“If the token does not have a consumptive purpose available at the time of sale, the initial buyer of the token is prevented from reselling the token until the token is available for use for a consumptive purpose,” according to the filing.

And Thailand’s financial markets regulator has banned several digital coins from the list of eligible cryptocurrencies.

According to CoinDesk, the country’s SEC has removed bitcoin cash, ether classic and litecoin, with only four remaining cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, XRP and stellar) still permitted.

“In any case, the list update has no impact on investors or digital asset businesses because so far no ICO has been launched and the operating digital asset exchanges have never used BCH, ETC or LTC as base trading pairs,” the SEC said.