United States Senator Edward Markey and Representative Jared Huffman announced March 3 that they would reintroduce the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act in Congress. The move comes ahead of a Senate hearing on the environmental impact of crypto mining, which Markey will chair on March 7. Markey and Huffman first introduced the bill in December, in the previous Congress. Sen. Jeff Merkley acted as cosponsor in the Senate. The bill would require crypto mining companies to disclose emissions for operations that consume more than five megawatts of power and require the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to head up …

Two United States senators have penned a letter asking Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt a plan to allow young adults to access the firm’s metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds. In a March 1 letter, Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal said that Meta’s reported plan to “invite young users into a digital space rife with potential harms” should not be implemented if the strategy was driven by profit. According to the two lawmakers, allowing teenagers between 13 and 17 years old access to the virtual environment posed “serious risks”, citing privacy concerns, eye strain, and online bullying. “Meta’s plan to …

California Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the United States House Financial Services Committee, has called for coordination and cooperation between government agencies and lawmakers to address crypto regulation. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Representative Waters suggested that recent enforcement actions on the crypto space from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may have been to present the image of “doing something substantive and meaningful” following the collapse of major exchanges including FTX. According to Waters, the market crash and related bankruptcies of major firms gave U.S. lawmakers an opportunity of “getting accountability” in the …

Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer has introduced legislation in the United States House of Representatives that could limit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a Feb. 22 announcement, Representative Emmer said he had introduced the ‘CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act’ in an apparent effort to protect Americans’ right to financial privacy. According to the Minnesota lawmaker, the bill could prohibit the Fed from issuing a digital dollar “directly to anyone”, bar the central bank from implementing monetary policy based on a CBDC, and require transparency for projects related to a digital dollar. “Any digital version …

The United States Congress needs to take control of crypto legislation to make it a more “open process” where the entire marketplace is looked over “comprehensively,” suggests the chief of the prominent U.S. crypto industry body. In a Feb. 22 Bloomberg interview, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith said the industry needs U.S. lawmakers to lead crypto legislation despite it making the process “very slow” and regulators “stepping in” in the interim. Smith noted that despite regulators “moving very quickly,” progress on legislation is happening “behind closed doors,” suggesting it's vital for more industry involvement in an “open process” which would …

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has reintroduced legislation aiming to allow United States 401(k) retirement plans to include exposure to cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 15 announcement, Tuberville said the Financial Freedom Act — which he first introduced to the U.S. Senate in May 2022 — aimed to reverse policy from the Department of Labor directing what type of investments were allowed in 401(k) plans, including crypto. According to the senator, the bill would bar the DOL from pursuing enforcement actions for individuals “using brokerage windows to invest in cryptocurrency”. “The federal government shouldn’t choose winners and losers in the investment game,” …

Despite attempts to police cryptocurrency through enforcement actions, United States financial regulators “are bound by legal reality” and Congress will ultimately decide crypto regulations the policy expert for the crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association has suggested. The association's chief policy officer, Jake Chervinsky, shared his views in an extensive Feb. 14 Twitter thread on the state of crypto policy. He noted neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “has the authority to comprehensively regulate crypto.” 14/ No matter how many enforcement actions the SEC and CFTC bring, they are bound by legal reality: …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission and its chair Gary Gensler were the targets of many lawmakers and witnesses at a hearing exploring the crash of the crypto market. In a Feb. 14 hearing at the Senate Banking Committee titled ‘Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets’, ranking member Tim Scott said Gensler should appear before Congress before September to address additional enforcement actions in the crypto space, calling out the SEC chair for doing “rounds on the morning talk shows” rather than testifying. According to the South Carolina senator, the SEC had not provided …

Two members of the United States House Financial Services Committee are calling on Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler “regarding the timing of the charges filed against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried” based on his scheduled appearance at a hearing. In a Feb. 10 notice, committee chair Patrick McHenry and Representative Bill Huizenga, who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said the timing of Bankman-Fried’s charges and arrest in the Bahamas raised “serious questions about the SEC’s process and cooperation with the Department of Justice”. The two lawmakers called on Gensler to provide records and communications from the SEC’s Division …

This year, investors are watching for big spikes in biotech companies working with psychedelics, especially as the once-controversial compounds return to the spotlight touting mental health benefits — and uniting lawmakers at the United States Capitol across party lines. The category’s future could make big legal gains in 2023, but due to the American government’s built-in checks and balances, even a Congress in agreement can’t shape drug policy alone. In May 2022, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz co-published a letter imploring the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) …

United States lawmakers with the Senate Banking Committee have scheduled a second hearing exploring the impact of a crypto market crash. In a Feb. 3 announcement, Senate Banking Committee chair Sherrod Brown said senators would convene on Feb. 14 in a hearing titled ‘Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets’. The hearing will come two months after lawmakers met and discussed the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in a Dec. 14 hearing. As the second hearing scheduled for the Senate Banking Committee following the start of the 118th session of Congress, there will be some changes. …

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the Republican ranking member on the United States Senate Banking Committee, reportedly plans to develop “a bipartisan regulatory framework" for cryptocurrencies. According to a Feb. 2 report from Politico, Scott included the crypto framework as one of his priorities for the 118th Congress. He reportedly was skeptical of some aspects of crypto, alluding to the collapse of exchanges like FTX — "high-profile failures resulted in lost consumer assets" — and potential uses for illicit finance. Scott recently took over the ranking member position from former Senator Pat Toomey, who served out his term without seeking …