On May 3, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) was interviewed by Axios news media and revealed important details about the crypto bill she hopes to introduce before the end of the year.
The bill, Lummis says, adapts the legal framework so that cryptocurrencies and traditional assets fall under similar regulatory categories.
“We’ve designed it so it works within the customary framework for managing and regulating traditional assets. So, for example, Bitcoin is a commodity. So it would fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for purposes of trading and the spot market and the futures market. And then when something fits in the Howey Test, that makes it a security, it would fall under the Securities Exchange Commission.”
The Bill Won’t Curb Crypto Innovation
Lummis believes that the crypto industry, which moves more than 1.8 trillion dollars, must have a regulatory framework that protects users without hindering innovation. According to her, the crypto space is “absolutely amazing.”
The bill will be a large piece of legislation detailing the different components of crypto assets and commodities. It will then divide this group into five to six different parts among various committees.
“We’re going to introduce it as one big piece so people can see the big picture, how the commodities components work, with the securities components, with the stable coins and with potential CBDC.”
In addition, Lummis stressed that the lack of guidance from Congress on the issue of cryptocurrencies and decentralized technologies has led to regulatory agencies, such as the SEC, having to make decisions on the fly. This should change once this law is passed.
Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) Will Not be Discussed in The Bill
According to Lummis, NFTs will not be addressed in the bill because, for now, “it’s so hard to figure out how to categorize them.” However, she expects regulatory agencies to help understand where these new digital assets should fit in.
After there is more understanding about this type of technology and how it works, it will be possible to know which NFTs should or should not be regulated since, unlike cryptocurrencies, many of these assets are sold as if they were unique works of art whereas others seem to work as utility tokens.
Therefore, although this bill does not have the same adoption intentions as the one promoted by El Salvador, it is being handled so thoughtfully that it could probably serve as a spearhead for many other countries to regulate cryptocurrencies.
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