Crypto executives seek clearer industry rules from U.S Congress
Top executives from six major cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase and Circle, met with US Congress this week to urge lawmakers to provide clearer regulations surrounding the multi-trillion dollar industry.
The industry leaders made their Washington debut during the U.S House of Representatives Financial Services Committee hearing in light of emerging concerns surrounding digital currency and in hopes of improving lawmakers understanding of crypto assets and their place within current regulations.
Crypto executives called for the amendment of existing rules, asking Congress to work with them to create tailored and bespoke regulations for the industry that would avoid unnecessary risks.
“Without tailored legislative solutions that are openly debated with public participation, the United States risks unnecessarily onerous and chilling laws and regulations,” warned Alesia Haas, chief executive of Coinbase Inc.
“Because of their nascent stage of development and unique underlying technology, digital assets trade in markets that are fundamentally different from traditional financial markets,” Haas said in her testimony.
“As a result, existing regulatory regimes often do not accommodate this new technology.”
Representative Maxine Waters of U.S Congress expressed the concerns of policymakers surrounding the lack of specific regulations to guide the cryptocurrency space. “Currently, cryptocurrency markets have no overarching or centralised regulatory framework, leaving investments in the digital-asset space vulnerable to fraud, manipulation and abuse,” she said.
The crypto giants seemed to be pleased with the conclusion of the hearing. “I think it went really, really well… It was very comprehensive, not contentious,” Jeremy Allaire CEO of Circle, said.
