US outlines timetable for passage of cryptocurrency regulation bill

A bipartisan bill regulating the crypto industry as a comprehensive document could be enacted in 2023. This was stated by U.S. Senator from Wyoming Cynthia Lummis during the Bloomberg Crypto Summit.

According to her, some lawmakers will need more time to understand the topic. Co-author Kirsten Gillibrand added that policymakers and regulators “have begun recognise the need for consumer protection.”

“Kirsten and I both believe that the document, overall as a broad bill, is most likely to be postponed until next year,” Lummis said.

She did not rule out that some parts of the “Responsible Financial Innovations Act” could be approved in 2022 within other regulatory acts. In particular, Gillibrand pointed to a proposal by colleagues Debbi Stabenow and John Boozman to vest the CFTC with the powers of the primary regulator for crypto oversight.

Lummis also added that the section on regulating stablecoins could be included in the document developed by the Banking Committee.

“There is now additional interest, because they [lawmakers] have seen that this is important to do, that today consumers are not protected, there is no oversight or accountability and there are no rules,” Gillibrand said.

Earlier, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the United States Senate Banking Committee, urged Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take a tougher stance on the crypto industry.

The senators’ statements came amid problems Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, Three Arrows Capital, and also the Terra ecosystem collapse.

In December 2021, Lummis announced a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies, describing it as “comprehensive”. The document was planned to include a range of issues—from taxation to consumer protection.

In March 2022, some details emerged, including division of oversight between CFTC and SEC. Later, the Wyoming senator clarified that the bill did not include provisions on non-fungible tokens due to difficulties in classifying them.

In June, Lummis and Gillibrand unveiled the full version of the “Responsible Financial Innovations Act.”

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