Republicans Pass New Crypto Legislation Regarding Registration Requirements

The House Financial Services Committee has approved new legislation that’s set to create a regulatory framework in the United States for digital currency trading.

New Crypto Legislation Heads for the U.S.

The legislation was largely pushed by republicans, though six democrats – including representatives Jim Himes of Connecticut, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Wiley Nickel of North Carolina, and Brittany Pettersen of Colorado – joined them in their efforts to cement crypto trading laws in America once and for all.

The goal of the legislation is to establish fully understandable rules for digital currency companies and to lay out specifically when they must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Also, both agencies must work together to create new laws that will be added to the bill and study areas of the crypto industry like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance.

Jim Himes – one of the democrats supporting the legislation – commented on the situation by saying:

I am confident that this legislation, while not perfect, makes the status quo better.

Senior fellow and director of finance policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute John Berlau also threw his two cents into the mix, stating:

I think we need to be very careful in any legislation that grants blanket powers over cryptocurrency to the SEC, to the CFTC, or to any new agency.

According to Chairman Patrick McHenry – a republican from North Carolina – getting the bill passed was not an easy effort. McHenry said the White House has constantly interfered with both sides of Congress as a means of preventing a bipartisan deal from getting passed. He mentioned:

Unfortunately, there was a third party in this negotiation that did not share our same sense of urgency: the White House. A bipartisan deal was within reach. We were closer than we’ve ever been. A few small, but nonetheless important, provisions stood between us and a deal. It was the White House’s unwillingness to compromise that has once again brought negotiations to a halt.

Additional points of the legislation would be to ensure stable coins are subjected to specific rules and that all trading outlets enforce know your customer (KYC) protocols to keep fraud and criminality out of the equation.

Warren, Once Again, Enters the Fray

This bill passage has paved the way for Senator Elizabeth Warren – a democrat from Massachusetts – to reintroduce an anti-money laundering act that’s built to limit terrorist funding through crypto assets. She said in a statement:

Crypto has become the payment method of choice for rogue nations, drug lords, ransomware gangs, and fraudsters to launder billions of dollars in stolen funds, evade sanctions, fund illegal weapons programs, and profit off devastating cyberattacks. This bipartisan bill is the toughest proposal on the table to crack down on crypto crime.