u.today
During the Senate Agriculture Committee's hearing on CFTC oversight, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced a new draft of her crypto bill.
The senator, along with her co-sponsor Senator Cynthia Lummis, plans to release a more detailed version of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in mid-April.
During the hearing, Gillibrand cited the "competition for oversight" with the SEC over differing views over Ether.
The senator insisted that the new bill will be comprehensive,
CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam Rostin Behnam had positive feedback for the bill, which covers stablecoins, custody, and cybersecurity risks, describing it as comprehensive.
Behnam also revealed that the CFTC's enforcement team had determined that Tether stablecoin was a commodity. However, this could potentially set up another conflict with the SEC.
Back in June 2022, the Gillibrand-Lummis bill was put forward to the Senate with the intention of making it easier to understand the duties of regulatory bodies, bolstering scrutiny on stablecoins, and getting rid of taxes on crypto transactions that are worth less than $200. Nonetheless, the revised edition of the bill will contain more detailed explanations of tokens, and lawmakers will tackle the issues raised about the initial version.
The Senate Banking Committee, which is currently led by Senator Sherrod Brown, who has been a vocal skeptic of cryptocurrencies, has not yet reviewed the bill, creating a partisan hold-up.
The future of the bill remains uncertain since Senator Sherrod Brown, who has expressed his doubts about cryptocurrencies by labeling them as speculative products run by irresponsible companies, is currently leading the Senate Banking Committee. It is unclear whether the bill will be able to progress beyond the committee stage.
Nonetheless, the announcement of a new draft of the crypto bill by Senators Gillibrand and Lummis marks a significant development in the ongoing debate around cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.