US Congress plans 'demystifying crypto' committee hearing for Nov. 17

The Joint Economic Committee, which includes Republican and Democratic members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, will be holding a hearing on the role of government concerning crypto.

According to the Joint Economic Committee’s, or JEC’s schedule for next week, congressional members will be listening to industry experts speak at a hearing called “Demystifying Crypto: Digital Assets and the Role of Government” on Nov. 17. Representative Don Beyer — who has previously proposed legislation expanding the regulatory and legal framework for digital assets in the U.S. — will be chairing the hearing.

Industry experts scheduled to speak include Open Markets Institute director of financial policy Alexis Goldstein, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Tim Massad, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Blockchain and Digital Asset Project director Kevin Werbach, and Coin Center's director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh. Lawmakers including Senator Rob Portman and Senator Ted Cruz, who have both previously spoken in favor of crypto regulation, are JEC members.

Related: House committee reviews cryptocurrency risks, regulations in hearing

Much of the discussion surrounding crypto regulation in the U.S. has been outside full sessions of the House or Senate, instead often limited to meetings of the House Committee on Financial Services or the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. However, the issue took center stage in Congress in August, when the debate over the wording of the current infrastructure bill included tax reporting requirements for crypto developers, transaction validators and node operators.

The bill has since passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate without additional clarification on crypto brokers and is awaiting approval from President Joe Biden. The U.S. President is expected to sign the bill into law on Nov. 15.