Prometheum week
As we first discussed on Monday, it’s “Prometheum Week” on Capitol Hill even if many Members may be working from home.
Yesterday, Republican leaders on the House Agriculture and House Financial Services (HFS) Committees came out swinging in anticipation of a potential blow-up – ignited by digital asset securities platform Prometheum – between the SEC and the CFTC over the classification of the Ethereum token (ETH) as a security versus a commodity.
In a letter sent to the SEC Chair Gary Gensler, House Ag Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson (R, PA) and HFS Chair Patrick McHenry (R, NC), Reps. French Hill (R, AR), Dusty Johnson (R, SD), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R, MN), and Rep. Warren Davidson (R, OH) headlined a list of 48 House Republicans wanting an explanation:
“Despite your insistence that most digital assets are ‘digital asset securities,’ that term continues to be undefined. Other regulators, intermediaries, and market participants disagree with your assertions, and have struggled to identify which digital assets are digital asset securities.”
The Members ask a series of questions trying to get to the bottom of the SEC’s and its Chair’s thinking on digital assets such as: “Is ETH a digital asset security? (…) If ETH is a digital asset security, please answer the following additional questions…”
Read the letter. Answers are due by April 9.
Democrats are nowhere to be found in the press release or the letter. Prometheum is a threat to the House Republicans digital assets agenda, which Democratic leadership – from the White House to HFS Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D, CA) – likely knows. Read the press release.
what you should know: The April 9 deadline likely lands just in front of the rumored HFS SEC Oversight hearing next month (Politico). If the SEC Chair doesn’t supply adequate responses, will this be the moment for HFS Chair McHenry to use the subpoena card on Gensler that he threatened last October? Continue reading “House Republicans Try To Pre-empt Ether Securities Designation By SEC; Sanctions, Enforcement Highlights”