U.S. House Plans to Introduce Crypto Bill Within 60 Days

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee will collaborate to create legislation that will oversee the crypto sector in the “next two months.”

This was announced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R–N.C.), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, during CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 event. The legislation will address both securities and commodities regimes and other issues that are hard to fix on either side.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), the other panelist during the session, said that she looks forward to coordinating with McHenry, adding that the House had a better chance than the Senate at getting legislation through earlier.

Lummis had introduced the bipartisan “Responsible Financial Innovation Act,” aimed at creating a regulatory framework for the industry last year with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and a new-and-improved version of the bill will be unveiled in six to eight weeks.

While the deadlock in Congress between Republicans and Democrats continues, lawmakers have been facing increasing pressure to legislate the industry after the meltdown of the FTX crypto exchange and the more recent collapse in crypto banking.

McHenry also said that crypto’s recent role in the U.S. banking crisis is fair to call “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” and that “Congress must legislate and provide clarity.”

Regulators in Japan and the United Arab Emirates have moved toward regulating the space while Hong Kong and the UK are revisiting how they approach crypto.

The EU’s approval of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) law makes it the first major jurisdiction in the world to introduce a comprehensive crypto law, putting the bloc in the lead on Web3 technology, according to McHenry.