Crypto Bill Approved by the US Congress Set to Revamp Digital Asset Securities

The US Congress presented comprehensive legislation for the crypto market to redefine workflows and operational guidelines for service providers.

Don Beyer, the US representative for Virginia state, presented the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act last week, which seems to be the most comprehensive bill yet for regulating the crypto market. 

As per text defined in the bill, the Secretary of Treasury will be able to forbid service providers from issuing stablecoins, govern rules and regulations for streamlining decentralised finance (DeFi), and work towards creating a standard guideline document for virtual asset exchanges operating in the market. 

The Investor Protection bill aims to develop a proper regulatory landscape for crypto-related activities. For this purpose, it categorises which form of digital currency could be treated as securities and those which are securities, ultimately reinforcing tax data collection procedures to fulfil reporting requirements. 

Marc Goldich, a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm, Axler Goldich LLC, found this legislation came rather out of the blue. He states,

“For a proposed legislation that seemingly came out of nowhere, it is incredibly comprehensive, and the authors clearly have an understanding of the underlying technology”

He further added that it will be interesting to see how the bill unfolds and makes its way into the market, and that this is the most well-written draft he has ever seen for any crypto regulation. The legislation coming from Beyer is surprising since being the Chairman of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, he hasn’t been much involved in crypto policymaking.

As a matter of fact, this crypto act authorises the Central Bank of the US, and Federal Reserve to produce central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a response to concerns raised by officials of the Federal Board. The staff stated that they were unaware before if they could do so before the statement provided by the authority. 

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