Tags for identifying Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies will be launched this September in the latest sign of how the fast-growing market is maturing and adopting the traits of mainstream investments.
The ability to monitor cryptocurrencies has become a major worry for regulators around the world as the ballooning market, which has reached a record $2 trillion U.S. capitalization, has experienced wild volatility and central bank warnings that investors could lose their money.
Individual stock and derivatives are already assigned a unique identification number to allow regulators and market participants to identify, track and quantify risks from trades. New digital token identifiers, or DTIs, for cryptocurrencies will be registered at the DTI Foundation, a not-for-profit unit of Etrading Software, a fintech company that provides market infrastructure.
DTIs will create a bridge between traditional securities and digital coins and tokens, using norms from the global International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that are set to be finalized by the end of September this year.
The DTI registry will formally issue identifiers for the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, which represent more than 80% of the current market and include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Ripple, among others.
Identifiers will also make it easier to compare which exchanges offer the best prices for specific digital coins and tokens.
