US Treasury says regulators ought to think about NFT steerage, given fraud dangers

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Division on Wednesday stated regulators ought to weigh new steerage or guidelines aimed toward curbing monetary dangers from nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, a sort of digital asset it deemed extremely vulnerable to fraud.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

NFTs, blockchain-based photographs, movies, music or textual content, surged in reputation in the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The property are extremely inclined to scammers and can be utilized to launder illicit funds, the Treasury Division stated in a report revealed on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, different sectors – together with different digital property – pose higher dangers for illicit finance, so regulating NFTs mustn’t supersede different priorities, it stated.

THE CONTEXT

U.S. regulators have been trying to higher police markets for digital property.

KEY QUOTE

“The NFT market is especially susceptible to fraud and scams,” the Treasury Division stated.