According to sources, the US Senate Agriculture Committee is moving forward with a bill that will create a regulatory regime for cryptocurrency exchanges. According to some reports, a hearing on the subject has been prepared for September. Here are the details…
Cryptocurrency studies in the USA continue
It seems unlikely that the bill in question will become law in this Congress. However, continued progress shows optimism about its long-term prospects. The bill, if enacted and signed, would require crypto exchanges to report to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The name of the law will be “Digital Commodity Consumer Protection Law”. Committee chair Debbie Stabenow and Congressman John Boozman introduced the bill in early August.
The committee is currently planning a hearing in mid-September. Three sources are naming 15 as probable dates, according to reports. The witness list remains volatile, as it usually does up until the days before the trial. The chances of the bill becoming law during the current congressional session are slim, according to experts. However, the hearing is considered positive for the next term, which will begin in January.
Currently, crypto exchanges operating in the US do not report to a federal trade regulator. Instead, the state relies on a combination of moneymaker licensing regimes. It makes specific statements to federal anti-money laundering officials. Notably, the crypto industry has become more amicable with the CFTC, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), headed by Gary Gensler, has suggested that crypto exchanges are in fact unregistered securities exchanges. He began pushing for a licensing and regulatory regime with the smaller regulator.
CFTC ready to expand in crypto space
The CFTC, for its part, is poised to expand significantly with new authorities on an emerging market. In traditional commodity markets, the CFTC has no regulatory authority over spot markets. President Rostin Behnam noted the need to increase the CFTC’s budget and staff in a February hearing before the committee. Behnam is also popular with the Agriculture Committee. He previously served as Stabenow’s senior advisor.
The SEC and Congressional overseers, the Senate Banking Committee, and the House Financial Services Committee remain obstacles to the bill’s future adoption. Senate and House Agriculture Committees argue that by sticking to certain digital asset products such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, they avoid entering the jurisdiction of the other. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies continue to be affected by macroeconomic conditions. As we reported on Kriptokoin.com, Bitcoin fell after FED Chairman Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech.
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