Top legal officials and a former regulator are set to testify before US congressional committees on Wednesday in a bid to open up digital asset regulation following ongoing tensions between the industry and federal agencies.
The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, in conjunction with the House Agricultural Commodity Markets, Digital Assets and Rural Development Subcommittee, will meet at 9:30 a.m. ET.
They will hear from Marco Santori, Chief Legal Officer of Kraken, and Timothy Massad, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Santori said he plans to explain how regulators can improve how they regulate with crypto.
“I’ll explain why the US situation is untenable, how other countries are moving quickly, and how we can improve regulators’ interactions with crypto,” Santori tweeted on Tuesday.
Santori also said Congress needs to give regulators tools to “promote safe, efficient markets or protect consumers.”
“Today’s environment of endless litigation doesn’t protect consumers. It doesn’t allow companies like Kraken to plan for the future. It doesn’t allow us to invest, hire, or allocate time effectively. Santori said
a fresh perspective
Massad, who will also testify, is calling on Congress to take an approach to regulating crypto by directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to develop joint rules.
Massad said those rules could be developed by creating a new self-regulatory organization overseen by both agencies. prepared testimony,
That organization could also be charged with enforcing the rules, he said.
“I believe this approach has many advantages. It is simple. It focuses on the core of the problem. It is practical and doable. It can be implemented quickly and efficiently. It integrates existing legislation in ways that doesn’t rewrite that can cause more confusion than clarity. And it’s incremental,” Massad said.
Who else is testifying?
Andrew Durge, head of global technology firm Republic; Matthew Culkin, Partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Door LLP; And Daniel Schoenberger, Chief Legal Officer of the Web3 Foundation, will also testify.
Durga warns written testimony That America runs the risk of falling behind other countries.
“The lack of clear and supportive regulation in the United States may deter businesses and investors from engaging in the domestic digital asset market, which could have a number of adverse consequences,” Durge said.
