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The United States Congress appears to be pushing for greater regulatory clarity regarding crypto assets, having so far proposed 18 bills relating to blockchain and cryptocurrency in 2021.
According to an analysis released by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regulator Jason Brett on August 22, the current 117th Congress broke with its predecessor by focusing on the regulation of decentralized assets rather than private stablecoins such as Facebook’s Diem Project – formerly known as Libra.
In July, Congress introduced the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act with the aim of creating separate statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities respectively.
Although the bill has yet to be passed by Congress, the legislation would require that digital asset securities fall under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) would have the power to regulate digital assets.
Brett says that among Congressional digital asset bills, the Eliminate Barriers To Innovation Act has made the most progress since its introduction in March. The law aims to establish a joint task force to facilitate collaboration between the SEC and the CFTC in regulating the blockchain and crypto sectors.
The legislation has already been passed by Congress and the House of Representatives and is now awaiting the Senate according to the report.
However, not all of Congressional digital asset bills have been well received by the industry, with last-minute changes made to the bipartisan infrastructure agreement in July, including a broad definition of ” digital asset brokers threatening to impose stringent counterparty reporting requirements for network validators and software developers.
Cointelegraph General Counsel Zachary Kelman called the nebulous language of the political game infrastructure bill shells in which lawmakers seek to raise taxes without resorting to details about the collection.
The bill will now go to the House of Representatives, where it is unlikely to be put to a vote until the end of the year.
Related: Elizabeth Warren compares ‘fake’ crypto to ‘legitimate’ CBDCs in Senate hearing
Congressman Tom Emmer has been among the most active in the digital asset arena, having introduced three bills this year.
Emmer’s proposals included the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act – which would provide a safe haven from the licensing and registration of money transmitters for blockchain service providers who have no control over tokens.
In July, he also proposed the Security Clarity Act to reduce regulatory burdens for blockchain-based technology and reintroduced the Safe Harbor for Taxpayers With Forked Assets Act in May.
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