US lawmakers will discuss the digital asset spot market during a congressional hearing next week.
The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on June 6 titled “The Future of Digital Assets: Providing Clarity for Digital Asset Spot Markets.”
The committee has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and has begun efforts to work with the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Notably, both the CFTC and the SEC have been exercising their jurisdiction over the past year through enforcement actions and public statements.
coordination between committees
Earlier this month both House committees held a joint hearing titled “The Future of Digital Assets: Bridging Regulatory Gaps in the Digital Asset Market,” where former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad told lawmakers he wanted a system where Let both agencies work together.
“I would prefer to see a system where we force two agencies to work together, one to work through the SRO. [self-regulatory organization]And that’s how the industry may have to basically pay for it,” Massad said.
This comes as Republican House Agriculture Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson introduced the bipartisan Digital Commodity Exchange Act last year that would give the CFTC authority over a new term he coined “digital commodities.”
Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Patrick T. McHenry has also been working on bills to regulate crypto, working with Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on a stablecoin bill, but has since revealed a split.
Two stablecoin bills surfaced before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on May 18, one from Waters and the other from McHenry.
“It appears that we have drifted from a bipartisan agreement and are now considering two separate pieces of proposed legislation,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., during that hearing.
No witnesses have been listed so far for the hearing scheduled for June 6.