Further reading:
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content of the bill
Don Beyer, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, proposed the "[Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act] (1)". Congress has ignored calls from industry experts and federal regulators to create a comprehensive regulatory framework. Our laws have not kept up with the times, and legislative work to provide basic protections for digital asset holders and investors is urgently needed. This bill is a start."
The 58-page bill is by far the most comprehensive bill on digital assets. The content of the bill includes the following aspects:
From the legal definition, digital asset securities are distinguished from digital assets. Digital asset securities are governed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), while digital assets are governed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
Require digital asset transfers not recorded on the public chain to be reported to registered digital asset transaction repositories within 24 hours to minimize the possibility of fraud and increase transparency;
Clarify the addition of digital assets and digital asset securities to the existing Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) legal definition of "monetary instrument", formalizing regulatory requirements for digital assets and digital asset securities to comply with AML recording and reporting Requirements; clarify that digital assets, digital asset securities, and stablecoins are not legal tender in the United States, and stipulate that the issuance of stablecoins requires the approval of the US Secretary of the Treasury. Authorize the Federal Reserve to issue a CBDC;
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Features of this Act
In Beyer's bill, regulators have already considered some proposals before, such as distinguishing the jurisdiction of SEC and CFTC. There are innovations in two respects.
One is that "digital asset transfers that are not recorded on the public chain are reported to the registered digital asset transaction repository within 24 hours", which applies to internal digital asset transfers of centralized institutions, such as digital assets before they are registered in Binance. Transfer, in this case, needs to be regulated, which will face a lot of regulatory pressure for all centralized exchanges.
The second is to require the issuance of stablecoins to apply to the US Treasury Secretary. This will have a greater impact on the industry. For a long time, the regulatory authorities have been unable to come up with opinions on the supervision of stablecoins, and have been vacillating between "multi-management" and "unmanned management". If the issuance of stablecoins in the future requires the pre-approval of the U.S. Treasury Secretary, it will not only be equivalent to handing over the regulatory functions to the U.S. Treasury Department, but will also bring drastic changes to the cryptocurrency industry.
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The introduction of the bill still faces controversy
Don Beyer has extensive experience in the financial field. At present, the two houses of the US Senate have four joint committees, namely the Economic Joint Committee, the Printing Joint Committee, the Taxation Joint Committee, and the Library Joint Committee. Don Beyer serves as the chairman of the Economic Joint Committee. In addition, during the Obama presidency, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and assisted the U.S. Department of Justice in investigating tax evasion by wealthy Americans through Swiss banks.
Previously, some members of Congress in the United States also made remarks about the need for enhanced supervision of cryptocurrencies. Just this Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren urged U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen: At present, cryptocurrencies are about to penetrate or have already penetrated into various fields of finance. The Financial Stability Oversight Committee (FSOC) should take timely action on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. For such assets, the longer there are no appropriate regulatory measures, the more serious the damage to the financial system will be in the future.
Don Beyer's bill needs to be discussed and voted by the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by the president before it can become a formal bill, because even among congressmen, there are opposition to the bill, such as Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis. Her opinion, according to Bloomberg, was, "This is a very complex area, prone to error, and we need a real committee process to consider these issues, not draft in secret."
Cynthia Lummis is a Bitcoin supporter. She holds about 5 BTC. In a previous interview, she once suggested that Americans buy Bitcoin as retirement savings.
Of course, such statements by Cynthis Lummis attracted opposition. Dave Dodson, who competed with her for the position of Wyoming State Senator, published a column in the media "[Lummis Senator, Sell Your Bitcoin] (3)". Dodson pointed out that for the senator, who is the maker of many of the country's financial and tax policies, owning bitcoin creates a huge conflict of interest. If Lummis holds Disney stock and publicly calls on people to buy Disney stock, it is obviously in violation of the SEC’s bill, but holding Bitcoin and publicly calling on people to buy Bitcoin is currently not illegal. This is why the industry needs more regulation.
[1]:https://beyer.house.gov/UploadedFiles/BEYER_028_xml.pdf
[2]:https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FSOC%20Crypto%20Letter%2007.26.2021.pdf
[3]:https://trib.com/opinion/columns/dodson-senator-lummis-sell-your-bitcoin/article_f515e460-ade7-5fa3-8c37-3ab1243ab5b8.html
