U.S. President Donald Trump has introduced the bipartisan major crypto bill. According to the duo, Senators Cynthia Lummis (Republican), and Kirsten Gillibrand(Democrat) will be deferred until next year.
Talk during Bloomberg’s Crypto Summit on July 19, the Senators stated that there is a slim chance that the comprehensive bill would be pushed through the Senate this year, with Lummis noting that:
“I think both Kirsten and I believe that the bill, in one piece, as a total bill is more likely to be deferred until next year. It’s a large topic, it’s extensive, and it’s still a new topic for many U.S. Senators and so it’s a lot for them to digest in the few remaining weeks we have in this calendar year.”
The Responsible Financial Innovation Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate on June 6 and aims to address the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when it comes to crypto regulation, along with stablecoin regulation, banking, tax treatment of digital assets and interagency coordination.
Both Gillibrand and Stabenow acknowledged that their bill may not be complete this year, but Gillibrand pointed out that John Boozman, a Republican ranking member, and Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat senator from Delaware, could help. working A bill proposing that the CFTC be the key regulator of crypto.
The bill incorporates parts of the Lummis/Gillibrand legislation relating to digital assets being classed as commodities and thus falling under CFTC supervision.
Lummis also pointed out that the section of their bill that dealt with regulation of stablecoins issued financial institutions could be rolled into another bill by the banking committee and voted upon this year.
Senators noted that they had received positive responses from both sides to the bill.
“There seems to be some serious common ground forming, and just as Senator Lummis said, the two committees that have the most focused Senators on this topic are banking and agg [agriculture],” Gillibrand said, adding that there’s also been some focus from the finance committee as “Senator Wyden and his committee wrote a good part of the tax provisions in our bill.”
Related: CFTC declares 34 forex and crypto firms unregistered foreign companies
The duo acknowledges that their comprehensive cryptocurrency bill will take time before it receives the right attention, but Gillibrand said that Senators, regulators, lawmakers, and others are realizing the need to at minimum get consumer protections in effect.
“There’s additional interest now, because they’ve seen that this is something important to do, that consumers are not being protected today, there’s no oversight or accountability, and there’s no rules of the road.”
“So there’s more urgency now, and also more of a sense that this is something we need to do,” she added.
These comments were made in response to recent bankruptcy proceedings by crypto lending firms like Celsius and Voyager, in which users are at grave risk of losing their deposited assets.
Lummis also mentioned the Terra ecosystem’s $40 billion collapse in May and the risky nature algorithmic stablecoins, which need further oversight.