In a recent speech, Brian Quintenz, a C.F.T.C. commissioner, proposed “a private cryptocurrency oversight body,” or self-regulatory organization.

Ms. Boring of the digital commerce chamber said, “It would have some oversight to a U.S. government agency or entity and congressional authority to levy fees and fines, and would have the actual teeth to be a regulator, but it would be an industry group.”

Donna Faulk-White, a spokeswoman at the C.F.T.C., said in an email that in Mr. Giancarlo’s testimony on crypto assets to the Senate Banking Committee, he “expressed the view that policymakers should explore potential improvements to the existing patchwork approach to regulating spot markets for virtual currencies. Any such effort should be thoughtful and deliberative, however, which means that there is an opportunity for industry participants to develop standards that could inform policy discussions and benefit retail market participants.”

“We are not yet in a position to suggest or advocate for legislation, but the chairman would view proper, effective and balanced self-regulatory efforts favorably,” Ms. Faulk-White said.

Another area getting regulator’s attention is taxation. In late 2016, the Internal Revenue Service asserted that holders of crypto assets are evading taxes and asked for the data, even customer chat logs, on all of Coinbase’s users over three years, causing privacy advocates to protest. After a legal battle, in November 2017 a court restricted the order to customers who had more than $20,000 in annual transactions on the platform.

In an email, the I.R.S. wrote, “The I.R.S. generally does not discuss its ongoing compliance efforts to avoid providing assistance to those taxpayers trying to avoid their tax obligations.”

On the flip side, industry players complain that crypto assets are taxed as property, subject to capital gains tax, rather than as a currency, which is subject to ordinary income tax. To pay capital gains tax, users would have to record the dollar exchange rates for when they acquired their cryptocurrency and when they disposed of it — even for transactions in which, say, Bitcoin was used to pay for coffee.