House Financial Services To Table The Bill Regulating Crypto

• As per the US House Financial Services Committee Chairperson Patrick T. McHenry, the government is ready with a draft to regulate cryptocurrency.
• The bill, however, has drawn flak from the Democrats. According to them, it does provide the security the crypto users deserve.

The ‘regulation of crypto’ is one of the most widely-used buzzwords these days. It seems every nation wants to dabble with the concept, yet, only a few are taking a step toward it. Recently, the US House Financial Services Committee Chairperson Patrick T. McHenry indicated something similar.  

Attempt to give recognition to digital assets

In a formal statement, he divulged his plans to conduct a poll on the bill regulating digital assets. More importantly, he said that it will happen by mid-July. Giving details about the bill, he said that the bill has been drafted to classify cryptocurrency as a security or commodity. 

The proposed legislation gives you a framework to discern between regular commodities and digital commodities. It also tells you about the role that the Securities and Exchange Commission will play in maintaining the investment environment. 

McHenry advocates a bilateral during the hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. This is a draft bill. Indicating the inclusiveness, he said that there’s plenty of time for the members to decide. However, he urged everyone to develop a directional view before the legislation resumes after the recess on July 4. The house is slated to start its operations on July 11.

Democrats sniff a loophole

Maxine Waters, the Former Chairperson of the House Financial Services Committee said that the bill is flawed. She pointed out that the bill proffers more leniency towards the crypto firms. It actually bars the SEC to take action against them in the event of fraud.

She voiced her concerns saying that the bill gives a chance for the bad actors to slip out of regulatory grip. It allows them to cheat the investors and customers and to walk scot-free. 

Notably, the debate on the draft is happening after one week of SEC’s litigations on exchange and Coinbase. The move has apparently unsettled a lot of crypto enthusiasts and industry leaders.

According to SEC, Coinbase and Binance are offering unregistered securities to their customers. On top of it, Coinbase is being accused of not being registered as a crypto exchange. The other hand, has more accusations of misleading investors and unlawfully operating. 

While the accused exchanges complained about no clarity in the regulations, the SEC chairperson Gary Gensler said that the laws have defined everything very well.

Conclusion

The ongoing tussle between exchanges and SEC may not be resolved soon. So an initiative by the government to regulate cryptocurrencies might settle down the matters. It also beacons for the positive things that could happen to this fledgling domain and the global economy. But nothing is certain yet so one has to wait and see how things pan out in this scenario.