Half-Empty Senate Hearing Casts Doubt on Crypto Rulemaking Plans

The hearing, hosted by the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on digital assets on June 24, was meant to look at bipartisan ideas for how the US might structure its approach to crypto markets. However, only five out of eleven members attended.

Those who attended included Republican senators Dave McCormick, Bill Hagerty, and Lummis, along with Senator Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat.

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Senator Cynthia Lummis, who led the hearing, said other committee meetings happening at the same time likely kept more senators from joining. Still, she admitted the absence was a problem, especially for a discussion that was supposed to involve input from both parties.

The hearing focused on whether Congress should move forward with a bill aimed at setting clear rules for the crypto market.

The senators asked questions to several speakers, including Coinbase’s $1.53B legal representative, a former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a lawyer from Multicoin Capital, and a financial policy expert from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lummis said she did not want to advance a bill that Democrats had not had a fair chance to shape. She also noted that interest in crypto legislation had shifted recently.

She noted that some people in the administration have family members involved in crypto and suggested that this could be affecting how some lawmakers view new rules.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve announced plans to stop using "reputational risk" as a basis for supervising banks. What did the agency say? Read the full story.