A Republican Senator is introducing a new bill that would protect crypto exchange platforms from certain enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a recent press release, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee is pitching the Digital Clarity Act of 2022 as a means of shielding crypto exchanges from SEC overreach and providing regulatory clarity about how virtual assets are to be classified.
Haggerty says that regulatory ambiguity is making investment and job creation difficult for crypto firms operating in the US, impeding the industry’s growth.
by Haggerty in a press release,
“The current lack of regulatory clarity for digital assets presents entrepreneurs and businesses with a choice: navigate the significant regulatory ambiguity in the US, or move overseas to markets with clear digital asset regulations.
Sadly, this uncertainty discourages investment and job creation here in America and jeopardizes the United States’ leadership in this transformational technology at such a crucial time.
This legislation is an important step toward providing digital asset intermediaries with much-needed certainty and removing the barriers to entry currently impeding the growth and liquidity of US cryptocurrency markets.”
No specific details were given as to which SEC enforcement actions would be covered by the bill to protect crypto exchanges.
Earlier this year, Hagerty also introduced the Stablecoin Transparency Act, a bill that would clarify which crypto assets qualify as stablecoins and how they’re to be backed.
The bill would mandate stablecoins be backed by US dollars or government securities with maturities of less than 12 months. It would also require issuers of the dollar-pegged crypto assets to disclose their reserves in audited reports.
