A crypto regulations framework bill proposed by Republicans has been approved by the House Financial Services Committee. The move is a major victory for the industry and a long-awaited step toward digital asset clarification in the United States.
On July 26, the House Financial Services Committee approved the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT Act). Additionally, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act was also approved by the Committee.
Step Toward Crypto Regulation
The comprehensive legislation designs a new regulatory approach for digital assets and grants major oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Now that the Committee has approved it, the Act is ready for a potential floor vote of the full House. The legislation was passed by a vote of 35 to 15.
However, the celebrations among industry leaders may be premature. The legislation faces a lot of resistance in the Democrat-led Senate. Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown is one of several lawmakers vehemently against the crypto industry.
Democrats also took umbrage at the premise of the CFTC regulating crypto rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The bill would actually require the two agencies to engage in joint rulemaking. They would also need to mandate studies on issues such as NFTs and DeFi.
Read the full list of cryptos named securities in SEC lawsuits.
Nevertheless, the Senators who worked on the bill praised the move as a step forward for fintech and innovation.
Congressman Ritchie Torres said “The status quo of crypto regulation by enforcement has failed retail customers,” adding:
“It’s time for Congress to bring sanity to crypto regulation.”
A “Huge Win”
Fellow Congressman Tom Emmer echoed the sentiment, tweeting:
“This is a huge win for the United States as we are one step closer to putting Americans in the driver’s seat in crafting the future peer-to-peer digital economy.”
House Financial Services Committee chair, Patrick McHenry said that the legislation would prevent the US from “falling behind” other countries in regulating crypto.
“Our comprehensive digital asset market structure legislation recognizes a key issue: digital assets that are not inherently securities may be offered as part of an investment contract but that does not make them securities,”
However, the bill is likely to get pushback from SEC chair Gary Gensler. He argues that the existing decades-old legislation already covers cryptocurrencies as securities, so there’s no need for new rules.
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