The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) recently issued a greenlist of digital assets it has approved for sale and trade, as well as for custody.
The green listed digital assets are as follows:
The NYDFS elaborated that any licensed business needed to inform the regulatory body prior to using any green listed token. The NYDFS also stated that:
Any entity licensed by DFS to conduct virtual currency business activity in New York may use coins on the Greenlist for their approved purpose.
While the greenlist is a helpful guide and promotes certainty for entities licensed by the NYDFS, the greenlist has significant limitations. NYDFS retains the right to not only remove any of the tokens from the greenlist at any given time, as well as discontinue the list entirely. NYDFS Also explicitly provides that even if a difital asset is on the greenlist, NYDFS may prohibit or otherwise limit a digital asset's use by a licensed entity.
The NYDFS is one of primary regulatory agencies for digital asset-related businesses in the state of New York, as the regulator issues the well known license for digital asset businesses, the BitLicense. While the NYDFS only has jurisdiction in New York, as the home of the financial capital of the United States, the NYDFS is often at the front line of new regulation.
NYDFS has published its general framework for greenlisting digital assets here, so there may be more greenlistings to come.