US House Financial Services Committee Holds Hearing on Cryptocurrency Regulation
The US House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss regulatory issues related to cryptocurrencies, focusing on the CLARITY Act, which aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework to regulate the rapidly growing crypto industry. However, the advancement of the bill has once again been hindered as some Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns about President Trump’s involvement in the cryptocurrency business.
The CLARITY Act aims to establish a clear regulatory framework, especially defining the responsibilities of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The bill also requires digital asset companies to disclose information to customers and separate customer funds from company funds.
Although the bill has received support from some Democratic lawmakers, including Angie Craig, Ritchie Torres, and Don Davis, actions by Trump and his family members in the cryptocurrency industry continue to be questioned. This includes Trump’s official meme coin TRUMP, the decentralized finance project World Liberty Financial, the stablecoin USD1, and the Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin, making the advancement of crypto legislation more complicated.
During the hearing, Republican lawmaker Andy Barr accused Democrats of launching politically motivated attacks against Trump, believing that their baseless accusations of Trump supporting the establishment of a regulatory framework for the crypto asset market are for profit.
Democratic lawmaker Jim Himes, who is considered to have a neutral stance on cryptocurrencies, rebutted Barr’s remarks, calling them “unwise and baseless.” He stated:
Himes also argued that the bill should include conflict of interest clauses and other supplementary regulations, and said that without these provisions, he would not vote in favor and would advise all Democrats to oppose the bill.
Throughout the hearing, legislators also discussed the details of the CLARITY Act, including the definition of “decentralization” and whether the anti-money laundering provisions are sufficient.
Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters called for a minority hearing to be held, inviting a new set of witnesses to obtain more detailed information about the bill and the connection between Trump and cryptocurrencies. She stated that the committee could potentially review the CLARITY Act “as soon as next week.” On the Senate side, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis told Bloomberg on Tuesday that work on the market structure bill will “begin” next week.
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