Bitcoin is punk rock. It’s cypherpunk money — alternative money. Anarchism comes to mind. So, too, does the exhausted adage that Bitcoin — and crypto writ large — is a digital Wild West.
That adage is largely true. After all, this is the same industry where one of the larger exchanges[1] had a $850 million hole blown in its finances after its payment processor, a makeshift stand-in for a banking relationship, “lost” the money. And then there are the seemingly perennial exchange hacks, literal Ponzi schemes and ICO cash grabs.
These events don’t define this market, but they do exemplify it at its most untamed. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have a more subdued and regulated bitcoin market: Bakkt[2], the CME bitcoin futures[3], trading on Germany’s second largest stock exchange, etc.
Because the markets took bitcoin seriously before politicians did, those who built business on and around Bitcoin had to make up the rules as they went along — or, in the case of those trying to tighten up for regulators, anticipate best practices.
The latter is what the U.S.-based Association for Digital Asset Markets, or ADAM, wants to accomplish. The coalition of leading Bitcoin and blockchain companies has a self-described mission[4] to “promote integrity, fairness, and efficiency in digital asset markets.” Toward this end, it has published a 12-page code of conduct for participants to standardize what it believes are best practices in regard to transparency, compliance, risk management, business ethics anti-money laundering and others.
“ADAM is an industry association consisting of several large market participants in markets for digital assets. It was formed to develop and establish professional standards for trading in [this market],” Jonah Crane, an ADAM member who helped draft
