The US Republican house committee members created the draft of the digital assets bill in response to an earlier crypto bill for regulation.
There has been slight progress in crypto regulation in the United States with a new digital assets bill. Though it has just been proposed, it could give rise to further development in the regulatory space. Members of two House committees proposed the bill.
The Agriculture and Financial Services Committees members who introduced the bill are Republicans. They have been preparing the bill for over a year. Earlier in 2023, Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand had also proposed crypto regulation through the Responsible Financial Innovation Act. The new digital assets bill could compete with it.
The draft bill is the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. It aims to fill the regulatory gaps for all activities related to crypto assets. If passed, the new law could empower the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate commodities. It also clarifies the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in crypto regulation.
An accompanying note along with the bill mentioned how the United States needed to catch up compared to others in crypto regulation. It said, “The European Union recently approved its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and the United Kingdom will soon finalize its own digital asset regulatory proposal. The ability of other countries to successfully build digital asset frameworks and incorporate distributed ledger technology into their market infrastructure further underscores the need for Congress to act.”
The bill has also criticized the SEC for regulating crypto firms through strict enforcement.