Binance Excluded From Coinbase, Bittrex, Kraken Rating Team-Up

The ambiguities regarding U.S. compliance for cryptocurrencies has brought many of the industry’s top-dogs to unite in solving the issues. It was recently revealed that many major exchanges based in the U.S. will be forming a ‘Crypto Rating Council’ to coordinate exchange listings and regulatory concerns. The effort will be spearheaded by Coinbase.

The Crypto Rating Council

The Crypto Rating Council will feature some big names like Anchorage, Bittrex, Circle, Coinbase, DRW Cumberland, Genesis, Greyscale, and Kraken. Some of these are exchanges but others are cryptocurrency-related investment funds. Together, they will create a “scalable, points-based rating system” to determine whether a cryptocurrency is a security or not. The criteria will come from SEC guidance and existing laws. In a blogpost announcing the council, Coinbase said that the initiative will ultimately allow for speedier listings across the board. The board plans to “focus our framework on objective, repeatable, fact-driven questions that can be answered consistently by technical experts across different assets and over time.” The ratings may also change over time. Ratings will be given out on a scale of 1 to 5. A rating of ‘1’ means that the cryptocurrency matches little to no criteria which would make it a security. Bitcoin falls into this category, for example. A rating of ‘5’ means it is definitely a security. These ratings will be performed independently, without any regulatory endorsement.

Binance Excluded from the Council

One notable omission from the Crypto Rating Council is Binance. The world’s leading exchange by trading volume will not be present on the board despite recently opening its Binance U.S. branch. There is speculation that this may be due to the council’s exchanges directly competing with Binance. Coinbase, for example, is a known competitor and even plans to eventually issue its own initial exchange offerings (IEOs) to compete with Binance’s, along with the addition of many new coin listings.  So, could Binance’s exclusion from the council indicate some bad blood between the exchange and others in the industry? One can only speculate at this point. Do you think that the Crypto Rating Council will have a significant impact on the entire industry? Could we see listings being more streamlined on Coinbase as a result? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.