Maxine Waters, chair of the US House Financial Services Committee, pushed for more federal oversight of cryptocurrency trading platforms and consumer protections at a time when FTX faces liquidity problems.
In a November 10 statement, Waters cited the FTX difficulties as the latest example of incidents “related to the collapse of cryptocurrency companies” and how such events could affect consumers in the United States. The committee chair pushed for legislation establishing a framework for crypto assets, highlighting her efforts with Financial Services Committee ranking member Patrick McHenry on a bill aimed at regulating stablecoins.
“Although FTX’s US business is reported to be operational, FTX’s FTT tokens are now worthless, and worse, FTX.com customers are completely unable to access their funds.”said Waters—although blockchain data at the time of publication appeared to show that FTX withdrawals had resumed. “Now more than ever, it is clear that there are significant consequences when cryptocurrency entities operate without strong federal oversight and protections for customers.”
The stablecoin bill currently being negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in House committee may still have a chance of passing in 2022, according to at least one lawmaker. However, the leadership of the committee could change from January depending on the outcome of the election, votes for which are still being counted at the time of publication.
As of November 10, It’s still unclear whether Republicans or Democrats will have majority control of the House and Senate as of January, but some reports suggest Democrats will retain a majority in the Senate, while Republicans will hold a slim majority in the House.. If that were the case, McHenry would likely become chairman of the committee and take a lead role in regulating digital assets beginning in 2023.
In addition to Chairman Waters, the Wall Street Journal reported on November 9 that the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating FTX US, the separate business entity that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried , said was “financially unaffected” by FTX’s liquidity concerns. In Europe, the member of the Economic Commission of the European Parliament, Stefan Berger, also cited the FTX situation to push for additional regulation in the cryptocurrency space: “With a [marco de mercados de criptoactivos] globally, the drop in FTX would not have occurred.
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