MicroStrategy’s Accounting Spat Reveals Void in Crypto Rules

The SEC’s high-profile objection to MicroStrategy Inc.'s accounting for Bitcoin put a spotlight on the lack of official accounting rules for the volatile cryptocurrency.

For digital asset enthusiasts, it was a round of ammunition to motivate U.S. accounting standard-setters to correct that oversight soon.

“It’s a real wake-up call to regulators and policy makers that crypto assets are moving more and more out of a fringe footnote issue and to a mainstream balance sheet issue,” said Sean Stein Smith, assistant economics professor at Lehman College in New York.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board may be listening. After years ...