Tag: blockchain

CFPB rule hearing

The House Financial Services (HFS) Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion hearing led yesterday by Chair French Hill (R, AR) on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed rule on non-banks, i.e. payment apps.

At the hearing’s open, Chair Hill highlighted bipartisan concerns about the rule which he said could unnecessarily inhibit industry and innovation, limit consumer choice and, in general, is an overreach by the agency. Crypto and digital wallets are swept up in the rule.

See hearing video and witnesses’ prepared testimony.

Over the course of the hearing, of the five witnesses, only Professor Christopher Odinet from the University of Iowa supported the rule.

Chair Hill added in his opening remarks, “There is no doubt that this proposal will decrease incentives to innovate in the payments space and leave consumers encumbered with fewer firms from which to choose a payment method–that decreases competition.” Read the entire statement here.

However, Democratic leadership led by HFS Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D, CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Steven Lynch (D, MA) staked out its familiar position around consumer protections and fears of “Big Tech’s” undue influence and therefore supported the rule.

Crypto skeptic Rep. Brad Sherman (D, CA) proffered his support for the rule and connected it to the digital assets industry and lobbying. In the Q&A, Rep Sherman delivered some zingers to the lobbying community, “This initial pre-rule is long past due. I’ve been in this town for a long time, and I’ve snuck in at least once to ‘Lobbying 101″ secret classes. The rule is very simple. The teaching is simple…”

Sherman continued, “If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If you’re on the side of good public policy, argue the public policy. And if the facts are against you and the public policies are against you, argue the procedure. That is mostly what we have here. People telling us that the procedure is somehow off now the most extreme of those arguments is to have the cryptocurrency industry come in and say how god-awful outrageous it is that somebody would treat crypto as a currency. If you aspire to be a currency you should aspire to be regulated like a currency.”

In addition to all HFS Republicans expressing concern during the hearing, a January 5 letter (see it) showed seven HFS Democrats who have their own reservations including Rep. Jim Himes (D, CT), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D, NJ) and Rep. Wiley Nickel (D, NC). Continue reading “New Treasury Report On Hamas, Crypto; Digital Assets Hearing Sees Bipartisan CFPB Rule Concerns”

IP & NFTs

JPEGs of illustrated monkey pictures and the like don’t get a lot of notice by the Congressional set. But the underlying ownership via the blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has attracted interest when it comes to intellectual property.

Yesterday, a whopping 112-page report by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Copyright Office was delivered to Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.

The report was originally the bipartisan brainchild of former Senator Patrick Leahy (D, VT) and Senator Thom Tillis (R, NC) who “requested that the USPTO and the Copyright Office (collectively, ‘the Offices’) jointly undertake a study to examine current and future applications of non-fungible tokens; how intellectual property laws apply to NFTs and assets associated with NFTs; intellectual property-related challenges arising from the use of NFTs; and potential ways to use NFTs to secure and manage intellectual property rights.”

Download it here (PDF). Continue reading “U.S. Patent and Trademark, Copyright Offices Deliver NFT Report On Intellectual Property”

Trump on crypto

That may have been the most Donald Trump has ever said to the media about cryptocurrency… Yesterday morning, the former President appeared on CNBC with one of the business channel’s anchormen, Joe Kernen, and former SEC Chair Jay Clayton and answered a wide range of questions.

Kernen asked former President Trump about Bitcoin, crypto and regulation. He responded, “Well, it’s taken [on] its own life. I do little things sometimes for fun and make money with it. (…) Sometimes we’ll let people pay through Bitcoin or we’ll let people get involved… If you think of it, it’s an additional form of currency. I used to say I want one currency, I want the dollar, I don’t want people leaving the dollar. And I feel that way. But I will tell you that it has taken on a life.”

“I did a thing that people smile at but.. it was wild. We did a thousand sneakers, a limited edition sneaker run. You could go through our crazy new currencies because that’s what I call them, crazy new – whether it’s Bitcoin or others. So many people were buying these things. Ultimately, the last pair of sneakers sold for approximately, I hear, $450,000. It was a limited edition, a run. They were gold, nice, cute -we thought it was just a very small thing, a branding thing. We had a good time with it. The last pair sold for $450,000. People were going crazy for these sneakers. You probably were, too. Everybody was .. every friend has [asked] me for a pair of sneakers.” Continue reading “Trump Talks Crypto And Bitcoin; FDIC Vice Chair Lambasts SEC Over SAB 121”

crypto super PACs

The influence of crypto-powered Political Action Committees (PACs) on upcoming Senate races such as Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D, OH) and Senator Jon Tester (D, MT) is the subject of a weekend article by Politico’s Jasper Goodman. Josh Vlasto, a representative for an amalgamation of Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, tells Goodman, “…we will evaluate a candidate’s leadership on issues important to the crypto and blockchain community, the viability of a candidate, the importance of the election, and our ability to impact the race.” Read all about it.

crypto super PACs – spend

Looking at the latest OpenSecrets.org database figures, each of the PACs seems to have a different strategy for spending on candidates.

Defend American Jobs has supported four Republican candidates thus far according to available data:

• • Gov. Jim Justice (WV) for Senate
  • Senator Jim Banks (IN) is running for re-election
  • State Rep. John Bradford (NC) is running for Congress
  • State Rep. Tim Moore (NC) is running for Congress

Fairshake PAC has supported a bipartisan list of members mostly from House Financial Services according Open Secrets data. But, by far the largest campaign donation was to oust Rep. Katie Porter (D) from the California race for U.S. Senate. See the list.

Finally, Protect Progress shows donations for two first-time, Democratic, U.S. Congressional candidates: Shomari Figures (AL) and Julie Johnson (TX). Continue reading “Crypto Super PACs Eye Senate Races; Stablecoin Bill Swirls In Senate”

Powell on CBDC

At the urging of Sen. Kevin Cramer (R, ND) during yesterday’s Senate Banking Federal Reserve oversight hearing, Fed Chair Jerome Powell tried to put to rest any interest the Fed may have in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

Powell said, “We’re nowhere near recommending – let alone adopting – a Central Bank Digital Currency in any form. The idea is that as technology has evolved, money has become digital.”

“But, the government doesn’t issue digital money. It’s digital if you look at your bank account. People don’t hold those physical dollars. They’re digital.”

“So, the thought was that the government could create a digital form of money that people could then transfer among themselves. Of course, that raises the concern that if that were a government account, the government would see all your transactions. And that’s just something we would not stand for or do or propose here in the United States.”

“That is how it works in China, for example. If we were ever to do something like this – we are a very long way from even thinking about it – we would do this through the banking system. The last thing, we the Federal Reserve would want, would be to have individual accounts for all Americans or any Americans for that matter. Only banks have accounts at the Fed.”

“So, it’s really just a question of following technology as it evolves in a way that serves the public better. People don’t need to worry about a Central Bank Digital Currency. There is nothing like that remotely close to happening anytime soon.” Continue reading “Chair Powell Denies Fedreal Reserve Interest in CBDC; Appropriations For Blockchain”

house ag hearing – Prometheum

All the pleasantries of a House Agriculture Committee CFTC oversight hearing aside, yesterday signaled a new – or more transparent – war between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the pro- and anti-crypto interests they represent.

House Ag Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson (R, PA) chose to highlight the CFTC-SEC battle at the beginning of his Q&A with Chair Rostin Behnam, a Democrat, who said that a decision by crypto securities platform Prometheum to custody Ether could throw off the whole crypto derivatives market which the CFTC manages -let alone set an unwanted precedent of Ether (ETH) as a security.

The CFTC Chair firmly believes ETH is a commodity.

See the video of Chair Behnam discussing Prometheum and the conflict with the SEC at the hearing (1:38).

The Special Purpose Broker-Dealer license which enables Prometheum’s product capabilities such as ETH custody was issued in May 2023 by the SEC and its Chair Gary Gensler, also a Democrat.

Digital assets proponents – House Ag Republicans, in particular – used the battle as justification for the new digital assets market structure bill known as “Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act” [H.R. 4763] or “FIT 21,” as it is known.

Whether yesterday’s House Ag theater will lead to the Senate Agriculture Committee re-entering the digital assets regulation discussion led by Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R, AR) remains to be seen.  But, Behnam was senior counsel for Chair Stabenow prior to joining the CFTC and the re-ignition of Senate Ag in digital assets may be inevitable.

In his opening statement, Chair Behnam reiterated what he’s said before: “The lack of legislation addressing the regulatory gap over the digital commodity asset spot market has not hindered the public’s enthusiasm for digital assets, and I continue to believe Congress must act…” Read more.

See full hearing video. Continue reading “CFTC And SEC Collide Over Prometheum; House Ag Pushes Market Structure Bill”

Super Tuesday crypto

In a piece titled, “‘Playing politics to win’: Crypto spends big on Super Tuesday,” Politico’s Jasper Goodman brings together recent news about crypto PAC’s funding of pro-crypto candidates and efforts.

Goodman digs into Senate candidate Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D, CA) record and finds a nugget, “Schiff, who has never tweeted the word crypto or made it a focus as a House member, includes a section in his ‘affordability agenda’ that calls for ‘comprehensive regulatory frameworks’ that ensure crypto firms stay in the U.S.” Another pro-crypto Democrat for the Senate? Schiff is leading in the polls. Read more.

Arizona – fund managers, crypto

The Arizona State Senate has opened the door for fund managers in regards to crypto-backed investments within Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Blockworks’ Casey Wagner reports on a resolution which seeks “to ‘encourage’ the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) and the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) to monitor these new investment vehicles and consider adding exposure.”

Read the article. Continue reading “Super Tuesday Reveals New Crypto Candidate Agendas; Prudential Regulators And Digital Assets”

Senate Dems accused

In an ironic twist on X last Friday, Rep. Brad Feinstad (R, MN), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, appeared to accuse Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) of paying too much attention to crypto legislation.

Feinstad tweeted, “Senate Dems have made their priorities clear. They would rather kick the can down the road on the Farm Bill and focus on crypto. The farmers and rural communities I represent in #MN01 understand the importance of a Farm Bill reauthorization & I will continue fighting for them.”

Before last week’s news of Chair Stabenow’s renewed interest in crypto, it would have been unthinkable to say any Senate Dem was interested in crypto legislation other than Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY).

Rep. Feinstad hails from the southern Minnesota “01” district and is on House Ag. He presumably took part of in the House Ag markup on the digital asset market structure bill [H.R.4763] which was moved forward by voice vote last July.

“FIT 21” – as the bill is known – may now be in the hands of Chair Stabenow given her role on Senate Ag.

Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R, MN) represents the nearby, central Minnesota “06” district. Whip Emmer is one of crypto’s strongest advocates in Congress and sits on House Financial Services.

Too early to say if Feinstad is showing a rift in the House Republican caucus regarding digital assets, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Continue reading “Farm Bill Collides With Crypto Interests; Prometheum Poaches TradFi Executive”