Bill Hagerty, a US Senator and member of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced legislation to safeguard cryptocurrency exchanges from certain SEC enforcement actions. The Digital Trading Clarity Act of 2022 will provide regulatory clarity on two primary concerns troubling crypto exchange establishments:
i) Classification of digital assets
ii) Related liabilities under existing securities laws
Hagerty believes the current lack of regulatory clarity for digital assets presents entrepreneurs and businesses with a choice to navigate the significant regulatory ambiguity in the United States or move overseas to markets with clear digital asset regulations. The senator said the prevailing uncertainty discourages investments in the crypto spaces and hampers job creation opportunities in the country. This also jeopardizes US’s leadership in this transformational technology.
The Digital Trading Clarity Act of 2022, as per Senator Hagerty, will provide much-needed certainty to crypto businesses and improve the growth and liquidity of US crypto markets. The bill needs to be approved by the Senate, the House, and the President of the United States.
Besides regulatory reforms, the American government has stepped up efforts to study the feasibility of central bank digital currencies. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, under President Biden’s directive, analyzed 18 CBDC design choices. It found that it’s possible for the technology underpinning a permissionless approach to improve significantly over time. This would make it suitable to be used in a CBDC system.
