The crypto industry has never made it this far in its quest for a new system of U.S. oversight for digital assets, but the recent flurry of legislative progress may still be too contentious for it to become law.
Three major fronts have emerged in digital assets legislation. One effort would finally set up wide-ranging rules for the industry, another would address stablecoins and a third would tackle the dangers of money laundering in crypto. They all saw a surge forward last week, but each of them also faces a minefield that may be insurmountable in the short term.
The industry is desperate for U.S. regulations that allow it to cast off investor uncertainties and take its place as a mature, fully functioning part of the economy. To get that – instead of the accelerating legal fight it’s waging with regulators – crypto needs new laws that define how it should work and which agencies should be doing what.
The drive toward a comprehensive law that governs how crypto will operate in the U.S. saw one leading proposal clear two committees in the House of Representatives last week. The legislation – which would set up the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with more direct crypto authorities – has been led by Republicans but saw a surprising cadre of Democratic supporters bucking their leadership to get on board. Still, it’s unlikely to get signoff as-is from Senate Democrats and the White House.
“I think market structure, realistically, it’s going to probably be a two-year thing,” said Ron Hammond, director of government relations for the Blockchain Association in Washington. But he said crypto proponents are “really pleasantly surprised” by how the Republican-driven initiative cleared the two committees. “The market structure bill won a variety of Democrats on a variety of fronts.”
Despite bipartisan legislation in the Senate from Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that generally overlaps a lot of the proposals in the House bill, the Senate Banking Committee has been a black box this year on its regulatory intentions for crypto. That panel’s chairman,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Cryptocurrencies Feed…
