US congressman Ritchie Torres has introduced bills in the House of Representatives to prohibit the misuse of client funds by cryptocurrency exchanges and require these platforms to disclose proof of reserves to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). . The short bills are intended to complement other cryptocurrency legislation being passed, Torres said.
Torres presented the bills, which have the titles of “Crypto Consumer Investor Protection Act” Y “Crypto Exchange Disclosure Act”, on December 1. The bills are very short. In copies obtained from Torres’ office, the body of the first bill, filed as HR 9241, reads:
“A cryptocurrency exchange may not lend, leverage or commingle a client’s funds without the client’s consent.”
The second bill, HR 9242, reads:
“A cryptocurrency exchange that holds assets on behalf of clients shall periodically (as determined by the Securities and Exchange Commission) disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission information relating to the exchange’s proof of reserves, including, with respect to the exchange in the At the time of disclosure, the amount of assets held by the exchange compared to the liabilities of the exchange.”
The bills have been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
US Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York introduces two bills that would create new guardrails for cryptocurrency exchanges as response to collapse of FTX exchangehttps://t.co/uVevNgxMyV
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 5, 2022
“Cryptocurrencies have a place in the US economy, but they must be carefully regulated,” Torres said at a press conference dedicated to the bills. She has a history of supporting cryptocurrencies, including authoring an editorial on the “liberal case” for the crypto space in a New York newspaper. On December 5, he wrote a letter requesting a Government Accountability Office review of “the SEC’s failure to protect the investing public from FTX’s egregious mismanagement and misconduct.”
There are several bills that Torres’ legislation could coincide with, including one authored by Maxine Waters and Patrick Henry, currently chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Financial Services committee. Torres is also a member of that committee. In November, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis compiled a list of 20 bills filed with the US Congress that could affect cryptocurrencies.
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