DC policy news for government and industry
As an extension of President Joseph Biden’s Executive Order on Digital Assets, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen provides remarks on digital assets policy at American University, Kogod School of Business Center for Innovation, on April 7, 2022.
Live Blog
Continue reading “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Digital Assets at American University (Video)”
The Annual Testimony of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the International Financial System
Time: Wednesday, April 6, 10am ET
House Financial Services Committee Memorandum here:
“The International Financial Institutions Act (22 U.S.C. §262r-4) requires the Secretary of Treasury to present testimony annually before the House Financial Services Committee on the state of the international financial system and U.S. priorities with respect to U.S. participation in the international financial institutions. The Secretary of the Treasury will also discuss other issues related to U.S. global economic cooperation and major international developments affecting the U.S., including Treasury’s role in implementing and enforcing sanctions against Russia.”
Live blog on excerpted blockchain-related topics discussed: Continue reading “Treasury Secretary Yellen’s Annual Testimony on International Financial System (VIDEO)”
D.C. blockchain policy discussion around stablecoins is heating up. Last week, two Republican legislators sought transparency, and investor and innovation protections in one fell swoop.
Senator Bill Hagerty (R., Tennessee) introduced a new bill called the Stablecoin Transparency Act (S.3970) in the U.S. Senate. According to the legislation, the intention is to “establish reporting requirements for issuers of fiat currency-backed stablecoins, and for other purposes.” Next stop will be the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Simultaneously in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Trey Hollingsworth (R., IN) introduced “H.R.7328 – To establish reporting requirements for issuers of fiat currency-backed stablecoins, and for other purposes.” The bill has been referred to the House Financial Services for review.
In a release from Sen. Hagerty’s office and in concert with Rep. Hollingsworth, though transparency through regulation is clearly one purpose of the bill, a pro-crypto tone poked through, “This legislation aims to provide much-needed clarity without giving the keys away to unaccountable bureaucrats who threaten to choke off innovation.”
Continue reading “New Stablecoin Transparency Act Supports Innovation and Protections Say Lawmakers”
The recent $100 million settlement by BlockFi with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in mid-February – see press release and SEC order (PDF) – was hailed by some as welcome guidance by the SEC on cryptocurrency and a step forward for the blockchain industry.
In particular, the SEC required the registration of BlockFi’s crypto lending products as a security going forward – an expensive process that could overwhelm less well-capitalized decentralized finance (DeFi) companies.
BlockFi itself declared at the time, “We have worked tirelessly with regulators on your behalf to chart this exciting path forward, and we look forward to our next chapter of pioneering innovative, crypto-powered products for our clients worldwide.” And then, the company announced an SEC-compliant product, BlockFi Yield which replaced the previous BlockFi Interest Accounts which were offered in the U.S.
Continue reading “Crypto Lending and Complaints of The SEC Curtailing Innovation”
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency were on full display at the recent SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. For the Filecoin Foundation-sponsored track last Tuesday, privacy was a key topic and included a panel discussion titled, “Financial Surveillance in a Cashless Society.”
AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements are ever-growing in the cryptocurrency space especially as the new distributed ledger technology and traditional finance worlds continue to merge. So, where does privacy fit in? A standing-room only audience wanted to know.
Marta Belcher, general counsel of Protocol Labs and chair of Filecoin Foundation, offered some initial thoughts in a crypto context: “There is this myth that privacy is bad and that tools that enable privacy and anonymity are illegal or enable illegal activity. And I think that is fundamentally a very important misunderstanding. Privacy is absolutely critical to civil liberties, as is the ability to transact anonymously.” She pointed to the importance of anonymity as it related to participants in the the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 and their anonymous purchase of subway tickets to get to the gatherings.
Continue reading “Financial Surveillance and a Crypto Society Meet at SXSW”
In an hour-long interview at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, offered the European regulator view on technology in the 21st century.
Though her purview does not necessarily cover cryptocurrency as CNBC interviewer Sara Eisen pointed out, Vestager did chime in on blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), specifically.
She signaled hopeful curiosity:
“The NFT is a new thing. I find it really interesting because, first of all, it questions everything you know about value. And second, maybe it’s a new way for artists and musicians and to get a stronger bite of the value that they create? And that obviously is really interesting. So we follow [it], but it takes us a bit of time because we start to recruit new people [at the European Commission] – not every lawyer is a gamer (jokingly). We need to get more people on board.
I had a very interesting experience because I had at a group of three people advising me during the last mandate when we were preparing the Digital Markets Act. It was a lawyer, an economist and a technologist. To see the three of them working together was really interesting because it took them some time to get used to it. But then once they did, what they achieved was really interesting.”
On tech regulation momentum coming from Washington DC
Continue reading “EU’s Vestager Hails NFTs as a New Way To Value and Compensate”
Momentum in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry was on full display as ETH Denver 2022 pulsed in the Mile High city last week. Among the Saturday slate’s many presentations, Blockchain Association executive director Kristin Smith explained the state of the industry from her perch as she helps manage industry connections to DC policymakers.
To begin, in addition to her work around DC-focused industry communications, Smith sketched out the Association’s org chart which includes key members such as Jake Chervinsky, the organization’s head of policy in DC, and a lobbying team which interacts directly with government policymakers across regulatory and legislative functions.
As for challenges the blockchain industry is encountering today, there are many according to Smith. She identified several recent developments while remaining sanguine about the industry’s prospects overall saying, ”As an industry and ecosystem we are in a really strong place in Washington and our political power is only growing. If we continue to work together in a coordinated way, I think the policies are going to work out just fine.”
A selection of the recent developments…