Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, expects the United States Congress to take a long time to pass cryptocurrency legislation despite mounting interest in crypto investments and regulators calling for Congress to weigh in on crypto legislation.
Crypto Legislation Could Be a Time-consuming Task for Congress
UBS, the largest bank of Switzerland, released its views on U.S. cryptocurrency legislation on Friday, after the House of Financial Services Committee had held an extensive hearing last week on regulation of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
The Swiss bank’s U.S. Office of Public Policy explained that at the hearing, a senior Treasury official discussed recommendations made in a stablecoin report issued by the Department of the Treasury and other regulators.
“To fill in regulatory gaps and address financial stability concerns, the regulators would like Congress to develop legislation that regulates stablecoin issuers as banks,” the UBS team detailed, noting that this proposal has received pushback from some lawmakers.
Federal Reserve stated in its most recent report on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) that they would need direction from Congress to proceed with the digital dollar.
However, Switzerland’s largest bank believes:
Legislators will need to take their time in order to understand the complexity of these issues, and come up with a solution that reconciles potentially conflicting approaches regarding how digital assets should regulate.
The UBS team further detailed: “Regulators could be waiting a long time for Congressional action and in the meantime will need to grapple with these issues using the limited and imperfect authorities they already have.”
Nonetheless, the bank pointed out that interest in crypto assets “is growing in Congress and among the broader public.”
Reports also suggest that Biden’s administration might consider cryptocurrency legislation in the future with an executive directive.
U.S. Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, criticized his fellow members of Congress for trying regulate crypto without understanding what it was.
The senator from Texas said: “We shouldn’t regulate something we don’t yet understand. This should be something we actually do. We should hold some hearings, we should consider the consequences … We shouldn’t destroy people’s lives and livelihoods from complete ignorance.”
Meanwhile, two federal agencies — the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — are collaborating to ensure investor protection in the crypto space.
UBS agrees that it will take Congress a while to pass crypto legislation in America. We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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