On Tuesday, May 21 the House Rules Committee is going to vote on a rule that would send two enormous pieces of crypto legislation to the House Floor for a vote. These two bills have previously passed out of Committee with bipartisan support (much to the dismay of Ranking Member Maxine Waters who tried to prevent this from happening) and are expected to easily pass the House Floor and be sent to the Senate.
H.R. 4763 also known as the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act will have an enormous impact on the entire crypto industry. This bill, clocking in at over 212 pages last time I checked, is a comprehensive overhaul of the current structure of the SEC and the CFTC. These two regulatory bodies are the two that are often in conflict with each other claiming jurisdiction over the crypto space. This bill essentially will end this power struggle between the two establishing BTC and ETH oversight not to the SEC but to the CFTC.
While the SEC regulates the stock market and the asset market overall the CFTC, Commodities Future Trading Commission has regulatory authority over commodities. Examples of commodities are food products say corn, sugar, etc., and are trading 24/7 operating around the clock, unlike the SEC which does a typical 9-5 five days a week. The SEC is overseen by the House Financial Services Committee but the CFTC is overseen by the House Agriculture Committee hence the reason it had to pass both Committees and was done in a bipartisan fashion.
With this legislation, BTC and ETH will finally have the protection they need from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler as they will be deemed commodities.
The second and just as important but in an entirely different way. H.R. 5403 is also known as the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act. This legislation once codified into law, amends the Federal Reserve Act, prohibiting the Federal Reserve banks from offering/issuing CBDCs for monetary policy.
While the Federal Reserve has already come out and said that there were no plans on issuing a CBDC, and have pushed back those that have wanted the Federal Reserve to do so, this would just flat out make it illegal and impossible for them to do so. Furthermore, it prevents the Secretary of Treasury from directing the Federal Reserve to issue one without Congressional Authorization.
Combined it makes sure that unless Congress explicitly authorizes its creation the US will not now nor ever have a CBDC.
Combined these two bills are likely going to be what the crypto legislation agenda balances on for the rest of this year and thus this Congress. It will pass the House the question is will the Senate even attempt to do anything or will they sit on their hands. Given this is a popular area with the youth the slight Democratic majority will likely be forced to do something since the Republican Party has taken such a positive and pro crypto stance.
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