Coinbase-Backed Crypto Ratings Council Adds eToro, OKCoin

The Coinbase-backed Crypto Ratings Council (CRC), a group of major United States’ cryptocurrency firms seeking regulatory clarity, has welcomed new members.

Established in late 2019, the CRC has expanded to include members like trading platform eToro, crypto exchange OKCoin and Radar, the startup behind decentralized exchange Radar Relay. Coinbase announced the news in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Jan. 16.

CRC now counts 11 members including Goldman Sachs-backed crypto finance firm Circle

As the new participants join eight other industry leaders in the council, the CRC now counts eleven companies that strive for more clarity from U.S. securities law on cryptocurrencies.

Other CRC members include Kraken exchange, Goldman Sachs-backed crypto finance firm Circle, Bittrex, Genesis Global Trading, Grayscale Investments, Anchor Labs, DRW Holdings' Cumberland unit, and Coinbase itself.

Officially launched on Sept. 30, 2019, the CRC aims to jointly determine which digital assets should be considered securities and thus fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As part of the effort, the CRC has been publishing online ratings for digital assets on a scale from 1.00 to 5.00, where the highest score means that a token is likely to be considered as a security and cannot be sold by unregulated firms.

Five new digital assets on CRC’s online ratings

In conjunction with announcing the new members, the CRC has also announced five new digital assets joining its public online ratings. According to the press release, the CRC securities Framework Asset Ratings added popular cryptocurrencies like Dash (DASH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Cosmos (ATOM), as well as lesser known altcoins like Horizen (ZEN) and Livepeer (LPT).

According to the ratings, Dash is one of six cryptocurrencies that are ranked 1.00 as of press time and considered by the CRC to not represent a security alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), privacy-oriented altcoin Monero (XMR), Dai (DAI) and Horizen.

Meanwhile, Ethereum Classic is ranked 2.00 together with its predecessor Ether (ETH), which means that these cryptocurrencies are more likely to be securities to date.

In the press release shared with Cointelegraph, Coinbase said that the CRC’s analysis is “its own and is not endorsed by developer teams, regulators, or any other third party.”

XRP is ranked 4.00

XRP is an example of a token that requires classification. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Heath Tarbert recently said that it remains unclear whether XRP falls under the CFTC or SEC’s jurisdiction. According to the CRC’s ratings, XRP is likely to be a security as it has one of the highest ranks among all analyzed digital assets, ranked 4.00 at press time.

As reported by Cointelegraph, the regulatory status of XRP has been unclear, especially after the token’s issuer Ripple faced a class-action lawsuit alleging that it violated the securities law by selling its tokens. The firm subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in early December 2019, claiming that the case is contradictory and “self-defeating.”

Contacted by Cointelegraph on Jan. 14 regarding its stance towards the CFTC chairman’s statements on XRP’s unclear regulatory status, Ripple has still not replied.