(Washington) Representatives of major cryptocurrency players said they were open Wednesday to strengthening the regulation of this universe during their hearing before US parliamentarians.
During this hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, the first of its kind before American parliamentarians, several leaders stressed that they were already controlled by one or another American financial regulator.
The FTX platform, for example, is already under the authority of the CFTC, the policeman of financial derivatives in the United States, for some of its products, explained its founder and managing director Samuel Bankman-Fried, as well as Coinbase, another major player in cryptocurrency exchanges.
The CEO of Circle, issuer of the USDC, a stable digital currency (stablecoin) whose price is at constant parity with the dollar, recalled that his group was going to apply for a banking license, which would submit it as well to banking regulators, FDIC and OCC.
For Alesia Haas, CEO of Coinbase, the US government should put in place a specific regulatory framework “that takes into account the unique technological innovations on which are built” cryptocurrencies.
The application of these new texts should be entrusted to a single regulator, in particular “to ensure that the holders of these digital currencies are protected”, she added.
“If you come up with different regulatory structures for bitcoin, bitcoin derivatives, Ethereum (another cryptocurrency), etc., you make it all more risky, more difficult and more complicated for the user to access.” , according to Samuel Bankman-Fried.
Several elected Republicans, including the leader of the commission, Patrick McHenry, have openly warned against an excessive tightening, according to them, of the regulation to which cryptocurrencies are subject.
“My fear is that some of my Democratic colleagues are already convinced and are preparing to table texts that will stifle innovation,” said the MP for North Carolina.
“Unfortunately, it would only take a twisted blow from Washington to undo the progress you have set in motion,” said Roger Williams, elected Republican of Texas.
On the Democratic side, these statements did not elicit comments from elected officials, although some asked about risk management and the use of cryptocurrencies to carry out illegal transactions or transfer the proceeds of crime.
Several Republican members and some interviewed leaders warned that the United States was falling behind other countries in cryptocurrency development.
“It’s weird that we’re the last country that hasn’t figured out” how to define a framework for cryptocurrencies, argued Brian Brooks, CEO of Bitfury, a technology group involved in blockchain and bitcoin.