Nine members of congress have written a letter asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to get its security token guidance straightened out. In a Dec. 9 letter to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, several members of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus led by Tom Emmer (R-MN) asked the commission to verify rules as to which broker-dealers can custody digital securities. Broker-dealer licensing is required to sell securities in the U.S. The letter also addresses the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulating body that registers U.S. broker-dealers under SEC guidelines. Currently, the rules are unclear, which has resulted in a colossal hold-up …

One of the leaders in U.S. crypto is optimistic that the space will grow under the administration of Joe Biden governing from the middle. Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, took to CNBC's Squawk Box on Monday to argue that the Biden administration will push crypto forward as part of a broad effort to update infrastructure: "I think that they will ultimately be supportive because this is an infrastructure change as big as the initial commercial internet, and they're going to be focused on infrastructure changes that make America more competitive." Overall, moderate politics benefit crypto, Allaire reasoned: "You've got moderates, …

On Wednesday night, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives looking to make fiat-pegged stablecoin operators abide by the same rules and registration requirements expected of banks. The legislation, under the name “the Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement (STABLE) Act,” sets out a fresh and extremely expansive definition of stablecoin. It furthermore dictates a series of limitations that outlaw stablecoin issuance for any entity that is not “an insured depository institution that is a member of the Federal Reserve System,” More aggressively, one of the bill’s provisions would make it: “Unlawful for any person …

The U.S. Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expanding an outreach program designed to provide access to minority depository institutions, or MDIs. Per a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the OCC's Project REACh is expanding to include a pledge of large and mid-sized banks partnering with MDIs. The pledge requires the partner bank to expand investment and support for executive development at the MDI that it works with. MDIs are simply banks or credit unions that are majority-owned by ethnic or racial minorities. They are seen as critical to expanding financial inclusion to minority groups left out …

Amid a global race toward central bank digital currencies, also known as CBDCs, the United States needs to focus on the private sector, says Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks. “We have built private stablecoins in this country that already have a market cap in the tens of billions of dollars,” Brooks said in a U.S. House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Thursday. Formerly head of Coinbase’s legal department, Brooks currently leads the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, which is the Treasury office that regulates federal banks. “These things are transacting daily, they are …

In a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Friday, the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, a veritable firing squad in what has become bipartisan hatred based on partisan reasons. But while Republicans and Democrats have different gripes with the platforms, all are clearly out for blood. Today’s hearing, theoretically, set out to focus on Section 230, a component of the Communications Decency Act that has historically served to protect online content hosts from the responsibilities that publishers take on. However, the actual questioning ended up being primarily political dunking. Many members commented on the speed …

Speaking at the online launch event for the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association on Friday — a Chicago-based group focused on regulatory clarity and industry security — U.S. Representative Bill Foster explained the importance of a "secure digital identity." "You can have the most rock-solid cryptographic guarantees of a blockchain or equivalent and it doesn't do you any good if people are fraudulently participating on it under anonymous names," Foster said during his brief speech at the event. He mentioned trading as an example, noting some less-than-honest characters in the industry could conduct illegal trading activities using fake names. …

On Tuesday, a House subcommittee put out a massive report that places Big Tech in the crosshairs of major antitrust reforms. The four firms at the center of the report — Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon — have been in hot water with Congress for some time. But while the tone of the recent conversation is punitive towards those firms, it also seems to envision a broader shift to new rules that would stop tech from this level of centralization again. Obviously, that’s a lofty ambition, and sweeping political ideals don’t make it into market practice without extensive compromise. Nonetheless, …

In a hearing on Tuesday, the Congressional Fintech Task Force heard arguments on new rules that would potentially expand banking regulations to accommodate more technology firms providing financial services. A subunit of the Financial Services Committee, the Fintech Task Force leads the committee’s examinations of emerging technologies. As Task Force Chair Stephen Lynch (D-MA) noted, “Banking is becoming less centralized. Consumers are facing more choices than they ever have.” Banking the unbanked? Much of the back-and-forth in today’s hearing was as to whether or not loosening the rules of banking — which would allow more firms to, for example, offer …

The updated Consumer Safety Technology Act, which now includes the Digital Taxonomy Act and the Blockchain Innovation Act, has passed in the House of Representatives and is now headed for the Senate as of Tuesday afternoon. The Digital Taxonomy Act provides definitions for the terms "digital asset" and "digital unit" and would task the Federal Trade Commission with preventing unfair trade practices in both. The Blockchain Innovation Act would require the FTC to put together a report on blockchain's role in consumer protection. Regarding the news, the author of the two bills, Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL), said “As lawmakers, it’s …

Two bills introduced last week looked to solidify the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — respectively the regulators for securities and commodities in the United States. The bills featured many of the usual suspects in legislation touching on crypto but one less familiar face was U.S. Representative Mike Conaway (R-TX). Currently serving as the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, Conaway has been in Congress since 2005, predating Bitcoin’s whitepaper. His tenure has not been especially crypto-heavy. Nonetheless, he’s behind a bill that could transform how the U.S. handles crypto exchanges, …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note The final scene of Animal Farm, Orwell’s classic fable of revolution gone wrong and a staple of secondary-school reading lists throughout the English-speaking world, features a card game. The pigs who run the farm with an iron hoof host the humans who have gone from enemies of the revolution to drinking buddies of the revolution’s leaders. The book ends with accusations of cheating and a metamorphosis realized. The pigs and the men look just the same. If you squint, …