- Representative Don Beyer of Virgina introduced a bill in the House that aims to create a widespread framework for regulating digital assets.
- One proposal in the bill is to provide the Federal Reserve with explicit authority to issue a digital version of the US dollar.
- The bill would also clarify which assets are securities and therefore under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
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Representative Don Beyer introduced a bill in the House on Thursday that aims to create a widespread framework for regulating digital assets.
Through the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act, Beyer is seeking to provide a regulatory environment that both protects consumers and promotes innovation within the sector, the Democratic Representative from Virginia said in a statement.
One proposal in the bill is to provide the Federal Reserve with explicit authority to issue a digital version of the US dollar. It would also clarify that digital assets and fiat-based stablecoins are not US legal tender while providing the Treasury Secretary with authority to permit or prohibit US dollar and other fiat-based stablecoins.
The bill would also create statutory definitions for digital assets and clarify which assets are securities and therefore under the jurisdiction of the SEC, and which assets are under the jurisdiction of the CFTC.
The uncertainty over the roles of the two government agencies is at the heart of one of the most high-profile cryptocurrency lawsuits by the SEC against Ripple. Ripple claims XRP is a commodity and therefore out of the SEC's reach, while the regulator says Ripple ran an unregistered securities offering.
Through a joint SEC/CFTC rulemaking session, the bill provide legal certainty to the regulatory status for every digital asset in the top 90% of the market, measured by market capitalization and trading volume.
"Digital asset holders have been subjected to rampant fraud, theft, and market manipulation for years, yet Congress has hitherto ignored the entreaties of industry experts and federal regulators to create a comprehensive legal framework," Beyer said. "Our laws are behind the times, and my bill would start the long overdue process of updating them to give digital asset holders and investors basic protections."