Six bipartisan senators call on the Treasury to establish crypto rules.

Six U.S. senators have pushed the Treasury to speed cryptocurrency rulemaking. Senators from both parties have joined forces to form the alliance. The contentious “broker” clause of the recently passed infrastructure bill is slated to go into force in 2024.

The Biden administration signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into law in November, imposing transaction reporting requirements on crypto firms and protocols alike. The law drew controversy at the time because of concerns about the word “brokers” and the rules that would apply to them. This phrase was defined broadly enough in the law to apply not only to cryptocurrency exchanges, but also to mining corporations, wallet companies, and others that do not directly handle bitcoin transactions.

This worry was expressed again in a letter published on Tuesday by a number of senators. One section of the letter reads:

“Some market participants have expressed concern that an overly-broad interpretation of … ‘broker’ could capture certain individuals who are solely involved with [validating transactions] and entities solely providing software or hardware solutions enabling users to maintain custody of their digital asset wallets.”

Six senators from both parties signed the letter: Senators Rob Portman, Mark R. Warne, Mike Crapo, Kyrsten Sinema, Pat Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis.

Some of those senators were originally behind moves to change the measure as early as August. Those modifications would have restricted the definition of “brokerage” to encompass primarily cryptocurrency exchanges and related businesses.

Some experts have raised worry that the desired timeline is so short that it might backfire. Jerry Brito, Executive Director of Coincenter, said that this might lead to “rushed guidance without public comment.” He urged that rulemaking be done only through the APA and public comment.

Patrick

Coincu News