Rostin Behnam, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said Congress could pass its first digital asset regulation law within months.
“As we look forward to the next couple of months, I think it’s possible we could see some legislation,” Mr. Behnam said Friday at the Financial Markets Quality Conference, hosted by the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy at Georgetown University. “But my hope is that by next year, 2023, the kind of fulfillment of this project is, in many ways, complete.”
Mr. Behnam previously expressed his support for the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in August by leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, at a hearing in September. The bill would give the CFTC jurisdiction over trading in digital goods.
“We worked very closely in providing technical assistance to that committee,” Mr. Behnam said Friday.
Sens. Lummis and Gillibrand introduced their own bill, The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act, in June, which addresses several aspects of regulation, including CFTC authority over digital goods, stablecoin regulation and taxation of digital assets. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to another currency or commodity, such as the US dollar.
Mrs. Gillibrand, who also sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the DCCPA is largely a reflection of her bill, calling it part of her larger package. She said the bill could see a vote by the end of the year, and also predicted some parts of the package could pass in the near future.
“Maybe within six months, parts of it will be passed,” Gillibrand said in a pre-recorded interview shown at the conference on Friday. “It would be great if we had done it within six months.”
Mrs. Lummis agreed, adding that if the DCCPA passes first, for example, then you could see other laws addressing crypto regulation pass soon after.
“I think six months from now, we will actually see at least some of this on the president’s desk,” she said.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and co-sponsor of the DCCPA, previously told Pensions & Investments that he expects the bill to pass this year.
“Every day that goes by that I don’t have authority is a day that a customer is at risk of losing money,” Mr. Behnam said.
