The American Institute of CPAs recently spelled out its initiatives in the digital assets space to the Securities & Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force, submitting a comment letter on AICPA activities and offering to serve as an ongoing resource.
The AICPA was responding to a February call for public input on a range of crypto topics by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the leader of the task force.
“Given our extensive experience over seven years working in the digital assets and blockchain space, we are well-positioned to assist the Crypto Task Force with its objective to bring greater clarity to digital assets, offering valuable perspectives and proposing solutions to the challenges they are addressing,” Susan Coffey, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting, wrote in response last week to the task force.
The AICPA formed a Digital Assets Working Group in 2019 as a joint project of its Financial Reporting Executive Committee and Assurance Services Executive Committee. The working group – which has developed guidance under its continuously updated practice aid, Accounting for and Auditing of Digital Assets – now includes subgroups for accounting, auditing and attestation. The AICPA has also developed white papers and training programs to support its members in this area in recent years.
Activities for the working group, by area, include:
- Accounting Subgroup– Develops nonauthoritative implementation guidance on the accounting for and financial reporting of digital assets under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for nongovernmental entities. “The current focus for the Accounting Subgroup is providing feedback to FASB on their agenda consultation in order to foster additional U.S. GAAP accounting guidance for digital assets,” the comment letter reads. “We believe that FASB is best positioned to establish standards on such accounting matters.”
- Auditing Subgroup– Develops guidance for auditors of entities that hold or transact in digital assets, specific to generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS).
- Attestation Subgroup – Develops guidance for practitioners performing assurance engagements on digital asset-related matters that are not related to financial statements. In March 2025, the AICPA published the 2025 Criteria for Stablecoin Reporting: Specific to Asset-Backed Fiat-Pegged Tokens, which provides a common framework for stablecoin issuers to disclose information about outstanding stablecoins, and the availability of the assets backing them. As a second part of the 2025 Criteria for Stablecoin Reporting project, the Attestation Subgroup is developing criteria for controls supporting stablecoin operations. These controls are essential for ensuring that the processes involved in issuing, managing, and reporting stablecoins are reliable and trustworthy.
To learn more about the AICPA’s Digital Assets Practice Aid, please visit the download page (member access only. In addition, to learn more about resources related to stablecoins, please visit the Stablecoin Reporting and Assurance page.
Thanks for reading CPA Practice Advisor!
Subscribe Already registered? Log In
Need more information? Read the FAQs
Tags: Accounting, cryptocurrency
