Tag: Responsible Financial Innovation Act

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Interview: Senator Cynthia Lummis Is Optimistic About Digital Assets In Congress This Year

Senator Cynthia Lummis

As Congress picks up speed this month in spite of election year hurdles, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R, WY) has been busy thinking about – and working on – next steps for digital assets legislation among the many initiatives and responsibilities she and her team oversee.

Her “Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act” [S.2281] has been been a key, proposed framework for digital assets in the Senate and Congress.

The bill, first introduced in the 117th Congress, and updated for the 118th, is a comprehensive, digital assets regulatory framework co-sponsored by New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “Lummis-Gillibrand,” as it is known, appears to have weathered the buffeting winds of FTX, a bear market, Congressional skepticism and the seemingly recalcitrant Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – to name a few.

Senator Lummis sat down with blockchain tipsheet at the Capitol today to discuss all things digital assets and Congress including:

    • The Bitcoin ETF watershed moment
    • State of digital assets legislation today
    • Lummis-Gillibrand and funding regulation with “wash sale” rule
    • Stablecoin bill update
    • Reflections on the NDAA digital assets AML amendment
    • Binance, Tether and illicit finance
    • SAB 121 and next steps

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

blockchain tipsheet: Is the approval of Bitcoin spot market ETF’s a watershed moment for digital assets?

Senator Cynthia Lummis: I think it’s important because it gives consumers who are not ready to dive in with both feet – who are not ready to self-custody – exposure to Bitcoin through an exchange-traded fund, which is a very well known vehicle to get exposure to valuable assets.

It’s important for consumer assurance that this is an asset worth holding in a diverse asset allocation and that now they can have exposure to it without having to be an expert. [It also] helps integrate Bitcoin into the traditional asset management world. So, I do think it’s a watershed moment. Continue reading “Interview: Senator Cynthia Lummis Is Optimistic About Digital Assets In Congress This Year”

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Senators Lummis and Gillibrand Announce Responsible Financial Innovation Act Re-Introduction

Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2023

At the Milken Institute’s The Future of Digital Assets Symposium yesterday, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R, WY) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) made their first appearance together in the new Congress touting the re-introduction of their digital assets regulation bill, the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA), in mid-April.

Below is an edited transcript of the interview conducted on-stage by Michael Piwowar, Executive Vice President at the Milken Institute.

On the re-introduction of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act in the 118th Congress:

SENATOR LUMMIS: We’re looking at mid-April to reintroduce the bill. And the changes that we’re making would be a slimmed down, better looking [version] adjusting some of the definitions. We’ve been working with the SEC staff to address some of their concerns that there might be some unintended consequences to some of the definitions, but we’ve been meeting with them and taking care of that.

SENATOR GILLIBRAND: We’re also trying to address some of the concerns that we heard through regulators and the industry to clarify different areas. So we’re going to have an ambition to try to build out some of the regulatory framework that we left for studies in the first version.

It might also be a more thorough bill than the first version because the first version was just an introduction of what a baseline framework could look like in the industry, and how you would assess what are digital securities, what are digital commodities, and how you would regulate stablecoins. We had a lot of studies [,too].

Now, we’re going to actually try to do a deep dive on stablecoin regulations. We’re going to refine a lot about digital securities based on conversations we had with Chairman Gensler and the SEC staff. And we’re also going to even broaden out DeFi because [with] DeFi we punted it to the regulators in our first draft. Because of the climate we’re in right now, we think it would be better for us to give our best assessment of what that regulatory framework might look like, as opposed to waiting on regulators since regulators seem to have their own unique opinions. And there doesn’t seem to be any certainty with given regulators. So we thought it’d be better to maybe do our own parameters.

And so those are some of the things we’re working on now. The bill is going to be stronger. It’s also going to address some of the things that happened with FTX. So that it’s very clear if [FTX] was registered as a US company, what it would have had to do and why consumers would not have been so harmed. Continue reading “Senators Lummis and Gillibrand Announce Responsible Financial Innovation Act Re-Introduction”

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Congress Reaches Out To Crypto Throngs at Consensus 2022

Congress at Consensus 2022

There may have never been a bigger moment in the confluence of blockchain technology and U.S. federal government policymaking as Congress came to the crypto throngs last Friday for a “Town Hall” at Consensus 2022 in Austin, Texas.

Seated from left to right were Senators Pat Toomey (R, PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY), Cynthia Lummis (R, WY) and Congressman Patrick McHenry (R, NYC) who acted as a team and appeared to be keenly interested in creating a relationship with the thousands in attendance. CoinDesk’s Jesse Hamilton moderated.

The new Lummis/Gillibrand “Responsible Financial Innovation Act” was the calling card in Austin, and clearly the Congressional members knew that a key constituency for helping create, refine and pass effective blockchain-related legislation in the years to come was seated before them. The congressional leaders also seemed to understand the audience’s skepticism about Congress and its ability to pass any helpful legislation quickly.

Senator Toomey, whose term ends this coming January, didn’t hesitate to stoke the fires of expediency at the outset by suggesting that stablecoin legislation – such as his – could be passed this year.

Concurring with the senator from Pennsylvania, Congressman McHenry said (lightly edited for clarity):

“The reason why we will be able to move on stablecoins is because there’s alignment around the essentials of asset-backed stablecoins. Algos (algorithmic stablecoins) are a different deal. But, asset-backed stablecoins – that regime is a very reasonable one for us to come to terms with (…). We’re about 50% aligned on the most extreme pieces of legislation here. And that’s pretty darn good for Washington. So then we can get into the finer points of some questions like: ‘Who’s the regulator?’ which are more preference issues than ideologies driving those conversations, but the need is there. And there is a understanding among Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate on the basic things we need to do on stablecoins. We have to [build definitions on stablecoins and address] definitional issues around digital assets and the regulatory framework of the exchanges that they are on.”

McHenry added that the new Lummis/Gillibrand bill had moved the conversation forward.

Continue reading “Congress Reaches Out To Crypto Throngs at Consensus 2022”