Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of economics and cryptography.
US Senator Calls for Comprehensive Crypto Regulation to Protect Consumers – Regulation of Bitcoin News
The chairman of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Sherrod Brown, has called for a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. “Recent crypto meltdowns have made it clear that we need a comprehensive framework to regulate crypto products to protect consumers and our financial system,” the senator said.
US lawmakers want a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto
US Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, spoke about crypto regulation on Tuesday in his opening statement at the congressional hearing titled “Crypto Crash: Why Financial Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets.”
“The cryptocurrency industry has imploded,” the senator began, noting that the crypto market lost $1.46 trillion in value by 2022 and crypto firms have cut over 1,600 jobs. The legislator said in detail:
As cryptocurrencies crashed last year, the platforms began to collapse, creating more losses in the rest of the crypto ecosystem. The crypto companies that are left have had to stop customer withdrawals, and freeze people out of their own money.
While noting that crypto contagion did not infect the broader financial system, the Ohio senator said, “We glimpsed the damage it could have done if crypto migrated into the banking system.” He warned: “This nightmare is not over yet … We are still learning the full extent of the fallout from the FTX collapse.”
The senator noted that “As these crypto firms filed for bankruptcy, regulators and policymakers have also learned how out of control some of these businesses were,” the senator said:
They were over-leveraged and under-capitalised. They had no internal risk control. They were careless with their customers’ money. As for FTX, they used it to line their own pockets. Now the money of millions of Americans is trapped and they may never get it back.
“These crypto disasters have revealed what many of us already knew: digital assets – cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and investment tokens – are speculative products driven by unscrupulous companies that put Americans’ hard-earned money at risk. Not surprising from an industry that was created to go outside the rules , Senator Brown went on to say, adding:
Recent crypto meltdowns have made it clear that we need a comprehensive framework to regulate crypto products to protect consumers and our financial system.
The lawmaker noted that existing rules could apply to crypto, saying, “Crypto is not special … We can start with these sound principles as we consider a regulatory framework for digital assets that puts consumers first and keeps our financial system safe.”
Senator Brown has long been skeptical of cryptocurrency. Last December, he suggested that crypto “maybe” should be banned. However, he acknowledged that it is very difficult to ban crypto because it will go offshore.
What do you think about US Senator Sherrod Brown calling for a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.
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