Securities industry regulators continue to issue warnings about cryptocurrencies as the prices swing up and down, with one former regulator stating that regulators have to get on the same page to create certainty for investors and market participants.

Norm Champ, the former head of the SEC's Division of Investment Management, said in a recent CNBC interview that, as it stands now, regulators' inability to agree on what cryptocurrencies are is creating "uncertainty" for investors and market participants.

"The U.S. Treasury has said that they are currency or money, so you have to comply with money transfer regulations," Champ said. "The Internal Revenue Service has ruled them as property. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ruled they are commodities, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has put out a report suggesting that certain tokens—tokens that are above the cryptocurrency level – are securities and they've put out hints that they may consider the entire token universe as securities."

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.