Wall Street regulator revokes accounting guidance on crypto assets

(Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rescinded on Thursday accounting guidance long opposed by the cryptocurrency industry, an early move in President Donald Trump's pivot away from the policies of the prior administration and a win for the crypto sector.

In a notice posted on its website, the SEC said the 2022 guidance known as Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which then-President Joe Biden blocked lawmakers from cancelling in May of last year, had been revoked.

The crypto industry and crypto-friendly lawmakers had long objected to the measure, which required companies keeping custody of digital assets on behalf of others to account for them as liabilities, raising the cost of doing so.

Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who stepped down on Monday, had maintained that this was necessary to protect investors in the case of bankruptcies, which he said were frequent in the sector.

The banking industry welcomed the withdrawal of the guidance.

"Today's decision restores banks' ability to serve as a trusted and secure option for clients that choose to custody digital assets," Paige Pidano Paridon, co-head of regulatory affairs at the Bank Policy Institute, said in a statement.

The SEC announced this week the formation of a crypto task force led by Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce. In a post on social media platform X on Thursday, Peirce hailed the decision: "Bye bye, SAB 121! It's not been fun!"

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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