The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) has developed criteria to help increase transparency around stablecoins.
Stablecoins have gained prominence for their role in trading, but there hasn’t been consistency in the information available to token holders for stablecoins. These new criteria aim to remedy this. This framework for issuing stablecoins, backed by fiat currency, lays out how to report relevant information to stakeholders and will provide the basis for attestation services around this asset class. By creating a standardized framework, the AICPA seeks to reduce inconsistencies in measuring and reporting issued tokens and available assets backing those tokens.
“The AICPA is excited to develop the first available framework for reporting on stablecoins, and to be at the forefront of bringing transparency and consistency to the digital assets space,” said Ami Beers, senior director, assurance and advisory innovation at the AICPA & CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). “We’re hopeful that these criteria will serve as the basis for evaluating the sufficiency of reserves that back stablecoins in attestation services that practitioners provide to their clients.”
The proposed criteria aim to provide transparency, not only benefiting token issuers but also token holders, regulators, and the wider industry.
“When developing this framework, we focused on the needs of the stakeholders which include consistency, comparability, and transparency of information, which will ultimately drive trust in these types of digital assets,” Jay Schulman, chair of the Attestation Subgroup of the AICPA Digital Assets Working Group, and principal at RSM US, said. “We’re looking forward to integrating comments we receive into the final document, creating a robust tool for practitioners performing work in this emerging area of accounting and finance.”
Once these guidelines are finalized and issued by the AICPA, the criteria can be used by practitioners when conducting an attestation engagement.
However, to ensure the criteria meet industry needs, the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee is seeking public feedback on the proposed stablecoin criteria. Written comments must be submitted before Jan. 29, 2024.