Cryptocurrency executives went to Capitol Hill
Wednesday to say their fast-growing industry
understands more regulation is likely coming,
but they don’t want it to squelch the next
wave of the internet or send it offshore to
other countries.
Leaders from major crypto exchanges, mining
and other related businesses testified for four-
and-a-half hours before the financial services
committee of the House of Representatives,
which wanted to learn more about how the
industry works as it wrangles with how to
regulate it. Much of the discussion centered
on protections for investors in a burgeoning
ecosystem that critics have called the “Wild West.”
Questions from Congressional members
ranged from 101-level discourses about what
“stablecoins” are — they’re digital coins pegged
to the U.S. dollar or something similar to hold
a stable value — to the technical and arcane.
Many questions focused on how stablecoins
could help the U.S. dollar hold onto its status
as the world’s most important currency, as well
as on how digital assets could help the millions
of Americans without bank accounts or at the
fringes of the financial system.
How to regulate digital assets has been a
thorny issue, with companies operating under a
patchwork of state and federal oversight. There’s
still disagreement about whether the Securities
and Exchange Commission or other regulatory
agencies should monitor certain areas of the
market, or whether an entirely new regulatory
body is needed.
“Currently cryptocurrency markets have
no overarching or centralized regulatory