The U.S. is Getting Serious About Crypto Regulation

A new crypto bill designed to at least create a basic framework for crypto regulation in the United States has been submitted to Congress for review and subsequent approval.

Is Regulation in the U.S. Getting Stronger?

The 162-page draft bill was introduced by House Financial Services Committee chair Patrick McHenry, a republican from North Carolina, and House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson, a republican from Pennsylvania (leave it to the republicans to take the lead in getting things done).

The U.S. has really fallen behind in many ways when it comes to crypto regulation. Not long ago, the European Union (EU) and the UK introduced new crypto legislation designed to not only keep investors safe, but also ensure blockchain and crypto firms stayed in line. By contrast, while the U.S. has spoken about crypto regulation for some time, the nation has done little to nothing to get it implemented.

This has led to several issues in that right now, in the nation, agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have little to go on and are thus operating in a very persecuting way. These agencies are simply going after crypto companies and inflicting penalties wherever possible, though everyone knows this is not the strategy you use to get firms to fall in line.

Several companies – including Coinbase – have even left the U.S. or opened separate divisions in international territory as a means of avoiding ongoing crypto regulation confusion in America.

The bill seeks to ensure that the boundaries of both the SEC and the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) are set in stone. It makes it clear which arenas are controlled or overseen by which, and the other cannot step into territory dominated or monitored by the other.

The bill leaves a lot of room open for improvement, though for the most part, bitcoin and crypto advocates are lauding the bill as a solid step forward for the industry. Paul Grewal – chief legal officer at bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase – commented on Twitter:

A comprehensive bill of this magnitude warrants an in-depth review, which we’ll be conducting over the coming days, but what we’re seeing so far is encouraging.

This is a Gamechanger

This sentiment was echoed by Ryann Selkis, founder at crypto data company Messari. He wrote online:

It’s a win this year for crypto to even get some attention in DC right now after last year’s setbacks. There is still a lot of work to do to get to a viable piece of legislation, but this is a good starting point for a sensible market structure bill.

Over the last eight months, the U.S. has faced increasing pressure to input the appropriate crypto-related laws into its legal system due to the FTX collapse of eight months ago.