chaintimes.com
A new bill introduced by United States House Democrat Don Beyer of Virginia has proposed a far-reaching regulatory and legal framework for cryptocurrencies across the board. The bill titled “The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act of 2021” touches on virtually all the important grey areas that continue to exist regarding cryptocurrencies. Several other countries worldwide are actively working on crypto regulations.
The bill establishes statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities.
The proposed bill aims to establish statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities, bringing the former under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) authority and the latter under that of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both the SEC and CFTC would be tasked with providing legal clarity regarding the regulatory status of the top 90% of crypto assets by market cap and trading volume. The bill seeks to formalize regulatory requirements for all crypto assets and digital asset securities under the Bank Secrecy Act.
The bill seeks to pave the way for Federal Reserve to issue a digital dollar.
When it comes to central bank digital currencies, the proposed bill seeks to pave the way for the Federal Reserve to issue a digital dollar by explicitly designating it as the only institution with authority to do so. It also calls for the U.S. Treasury Secretary to have the power to either permit or prohibit U.S, dollar, and other fiat-based stablecoins. The bill proposes that any digital assets that are not recorded on a public distributed ledger within 24 hours should be reported to a CFTC-registered digital asset trade repository as a way to prevent fraud.