The US Senate Agriculture Committee has released its long-awaited discussion draft of crypto market structure laws, bringing Congress closer to passing legislation outlining how the crypto sector will be regulated.
Republican Agriculture Chair John Boozman and Democrat Senator Cory Booker released the draft on Monday, which includes brackets around sections of the bill that lawmakers are still negotiating.
The bill aims to outline the limits of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s power to regulate crypto. Only Congress can set the agencies’ regulatory boundaries, and both have shared guidance to companies about crypto under the Trump administration’s deregulation push.
“The CFTC is the right agency to regulate spot digital commodity trading, and it is essential to establish clear rules for the emerging crypto market while also protecting consumers,” Boozman said.
Booker said the discussion draft “would provide the CFTC with new authority to regulate the digital commodity spot market, create new protections for retail customers, and ensure the agency has the personnel and resources necessary to oversee this growing market.”
Parts of crypto bill still up for change
The draft bill outlines common crypto terms such as “blockchain,” “decentralized finance,” and decentralized autonomous organizations and how they would be regulated under the Commodity Exchange Act.
Much of the bill is in brackets, indicating that it is subject to change. One part of the text mentions the “minority view” — held by the Democrats in the committee — don’t believe the Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over certain aspects and are interested in working with the Senate Banking Committee to ”address issues related to noncontrolling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain services.”
The Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the CFTC, and the Senate Banking Committee is leading parts of the bill relating to securities laws, as it oversees the SEC.
Related: End to US gov’t shutdown sparks institutional buying, ETF ‘floodgate’ hopes
Republicans on the Banking Committee released a discussion draft on their section of the bill in July and suggested it would marry up with the CLARITY Act, a bill the House passed in July that gives the CFTC a central role in regulating crypto.
Crypto groups back progress
Ji Hun Kim, the CEO of crypto advocacy group the Crypto Council for Innovation, said the release of the draft bill “marks meaningful positive progress toward establishing a comprehensive, fit-for-purpose market structure framework for digital commodities in the US.”
Mason Lynaugh, a community director at Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand with Crypto, said the bill is an “important step toward formally establishing the common-sense regulatory framework” that the crypto industry had pushed for.
“The Senate must act quickly and deliberately to pass market structure legislation,” he added. “Crypto advocates nationwide are counting on their elected officials to create clear rules of the road.”
Magazine: EU’s privacy-killing Chat Control bill delayed — but fight isn’t over
