Senate Hearing on Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in recent years, leading to a greater need for regulation from governments and regulatory agencies. As such, the US Senate has held several hearings over the past few years to discuss cryptocurrencies and their potential implications for both consumers and businesses.
The first hearing was held in 2013 by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations. At that time, there were concerns about digital currencies being used to facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering or drug trafficking. The committee heard testimony from law enforcement officials, financial industry representatives, academics, and other stakeholders with an interest in digital currency technology. Following this initial hearing, more hearings were scheduled throughout 2014-2018 focusing primarily on consumer protection issues related to cryptocurrency investments as well as taxation of digital currency transactions.
In early 2018, two major US Senate committees held a joint hearing titled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain” which featured testimony from members of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton along with various industry experts representing various aspects of blockchain technology such as venture capital investment opportunities or enterprise applications development possibilities. This particular hearing discussed topics including investor protections measures needed when considering investing into ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) or token offerings; efforts related to ensuring compliance with existing laws; taxation implications pertaining to virtual currency transactions; anti-money laundering/counter financing terrorism initiatives related to cryptocurrency exchanges; data privacy considerations associated with distributed ledger technologies; energy consumption implications due decentralized networks maintenance needs etcetera..
At present time there are no legislative proposals pending before Congress but we should expect further congressional involvement during 2019 given developments seen at international level where countries like France already released draft legislation aiming at formalizing Initial Coin Offerings legal framework while others like Malta created comprehensive legal structures regulating blockchain based service providers operations within their respective jurisdictions boundaries by introducing so called Virtual Financial Assets Act provisions which set clear rules regarding license requirements for VFA agents organizing ICOs among many other pertinent regulations .
