Cryptoasset Exchanges Respond to New York Attorney General's Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative

On April 17, 2018, the New York Attorney General's Office ("OAG") launched a Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative and sent letters to thirteen cryptoasset trading platforms requesting, through a questionnaire, disclosures on their operations, internal controls, and safeguards to protect customer assets. The questionnaire focused on six major topic areas, including: 1) Ownership and Control, 2) Basic Operation and Fees, 3) Trading Policies and Procedures, 4) Outages and Other Suspensions of Trading, 5) Internal Controls, and 6) Privacy and Money Laundering. The OAG characterized the initiative as a mechanism to "increase transparency and accountability" on "platforms used by consumers to trade virtual or 'crypto' currencies like bitcoin and ether." Notably, the thirteen trading platforms were only given two weeks to respond to the questionnaire.