SAB 121 resolution delayed
The H.J.R. 109 veto override vote was delayed in the House last night until today at 10:30 a.m. (or later). You can watch it here.
In the interim, you can read House Financial Services (HFS) Chair Patrick McHenry’s (R, NC) remarks during yesterday’s debate time on the House Floor titled, “This Administration Would Rather Play Politics and Side with Power Hungry Bureaucrats Over the American People.” Read it.
HFS Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D, CA) responded with her own remarks titled, “This Resolution Is Part of a Long List of Efforts by Industry and Its Allies to Attack the Good Work of the SEC, Which Has Made Significant Progress in Protecting Investors, Maintaining Fair, Orderly, and Efficient Markets, and Facilitating Capital Formation.” Read that one.
Debate video can be found on the House Clerk’s website here.
If the veto override is successful in both houses of Congress, H.J.R.109 would remove certain reserve requirements – instigated by the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121) – on crypto custody for regulated banks.
what you should know: In advance of yesterday’s almost-vote, HFS Chair McHenry appeared on CNBC and challenged Dems to vote to override. See it.
today’s noms hearing
Today’s nominations hearing, which includes Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair and Caroline Crenshaw for re-nomination of her role as SEC Commissioner, begins at 10 a.m. ET this morning.
See hearing page with live video from Dirksen.
more tips:
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- “As the digital asset industry has learned, ‘personnel is policy’ and leadership of regulatory agencies matters. Tomorrow, the Senate Banking Committee will consider several nominations.” – Ji Kim, chief legal officer, Crypto Council for Innovation on X
what you should know: Of all the hearings this week, this may be the one with the most potential for fireworks led by Republicans and Senator Bill Hagerty (R, TN).
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- Sen. Hagerty has consistently raised the “Choke Point 2.0“ scenario – thought to be led by the FDIC and its current chair Martin Gruenberg.
- Also, Sen. Hagerty has shone a bright light lately on Democratic leadership’s reluctance to support digital assets regulation.
Attracting further scrutiny will be Commissioner Crenshaw’s dissent during the spot Bitcoin ETF application approval process in January by the Commission.
Trump and crypto
Donald Trump To Speak at Bitcoin 2024 Conference In Nashville In Two Weeks – Bitcoin Magazine
Senate Ag hearing
Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R, AR) gathered the Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday for a roughly 2-hour hearing on digital assets commodities oversight with CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam (D).
See the hearing page with video.
The most newsmaking part of the hearing was early on when Chair Stabenow divulged a new crypto bill was imminent and sounded much like her Committee’s past bipartisan bill: the “Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act.” (DCCPA) [S.4760].
Covering the hearing, CoinDesk’s Jesse Hamilton reported that “the details of a current effort led by Stabenow haven’t officially emerged, and she indicated at the hearing that she hopes to share specific legislative language with fellow panel members by the end of the week.” Read his coverage.
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) and Cory Booker (D, NJ) were among Senators who strongly said they supported a new framework for digital assets. Sen. Booker was a co-sponsor of DCCPA 1.0.
more tips:
what you should know: The hearing was a nothingburger. The questions and answers seemed like an unnecessary prelude to the bill’s arrival considering how much ground has been covered in previous hearings across both houses of Congress. On top of that, it’s not clear that anyone believes this bill will be impactful (make it to law – which seems unfathomable) given the dwindling Congressional calendar.
Also, the Democratic position of “consumer protections” is becoming tired and uninformed… it’s like saying you’re in favor of “breathing air.” Consumer protections are “table stakes” for everyone: Democrat, Republican, Independent and Industry. It would seem that one is late to the game if they’re saying they’re for consumer protections.
An opportunity coming out of the hearing is that there is clearly a need for eduction about digital assets across certain Members of both parties. Of course, those Members need to be open to that education which can be part of the challenge, too.
Senate Ag hearing – quotable
CFTC Chair Behnam said he believed 70-80% of cryptocurrencies are not securities.
This statement stands in stark contrast to SEC Chair Gary Gensler who concluded in a speech in 2022 that the “vast majority” of cryptocurrencies are securities.
Senate Ag hearing – aftermath
Right after the hearing, the House Agriculture Republican Committee openly fired away at their Democratic colleagues on X.
First:
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- The GOP account retweeted a quote from Politico’s Eleanor Mueller who had tweeted, “Stabenow tells Senate Ag that she wants to have text of her crypto bill to members ‘by the end of the week’ so they can review… She says it has three key pillars: ‘similar rules for similar risks,’ ‘protecting retail customers,’ and ‘adequate permanent funding for the CFTC'”
Next:
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- The House Ag GOP account commented on top of the retweet and said on X, “Maybe she (Sen. Stabenow) can release her [Farm Bill] text while she is at it?”
And then:
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- The House Ag GOP account added on X: “For those keeping score, we passed a bipartisan [crypto] bill AND a bipartisan [Farm Bill] out of Committee while the Senate still lags behind on both.
crypto lobbying yesterday
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- “Today, we hosted 24 founders for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill…” (see photos) – Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto on X
Khanna roundtable
The Rep. Ro Khanna (D, CA) blockchain roundtable went off without a hitch (that we know of) yesterday morning.
Several attendees including Crypto Council of Innovation’s Sheila Warren and Blockchain Association’s Kristin Smith and Haun Ventures general counsel James Rathmell offered hopeful tweets (Warren, Smith, Rathmell) after the meeting which also included Anita Dunn, a member of the Administration’s communications group.
A mostly complete list of attendees is available here from Fox Business’ Eleanor Terrett.
more tips:
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- Top Biden adviser talks crypto with industry, lawmakers (subscription) – Politico
new co-sponsors
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R, FL) added two fellow Floridian and Republican co-sponsors for his bill [H.R.8822] which would enable payment of Federal taxes by using Bitcoin: Reps. Byron Donalds and Anna Paulina Luna. Congress.gov says they co-sponsored back in June at introduction, but this is the first blockchain tipsheet has heard of their involvement.
The bill is another example of Republicans increasingly embrace of crypto, and Bitcoin, in particular, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s open embrace of crypto -and crypto donations.
amicus brief
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- “Coinbase Amicus Brief in support of LEJILEX and the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas suit against SEC’s overreach and regulation by enforcement campaign towards the digital asset industry” – via Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal on X – PDF is here
still more tips
June 2024 Republican Public Opinion Poll – Paradigm
Crypto exchange BitMEX pleads guilty to bank secrecy violation – Axios
From Facebook to the face of crypto: Inside Anthony Pompliano’s wild career – TechCrunch
The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy (subscription) – WIRED
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that it was House Agriculture GOP Committee’s X account (not Senate Ag GOP) which reacted to the Senate Ag hearing on digital commodities.