The executives of six cryptocurrency companies will testify to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning local time in the U.S. These executives said in advance that they must exercise caution when implementing new rules on digital assets. Otherwise, it may cause related activities to shift to “underground” or outside the United States.
The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings starting at 10 am EST on Wednesday. And the executives of some of the largest cryptocurrency companies in the world stated in prepared testimony that, in general, they will support the introduction of clearer rules for this industry. But at the same time, they will emphasize that overly restrictive regulatory rules will not stifle cryptocurrency-related activities, but will only promote their transfer to areas beyond the jurisdiction of the US government.
Alesia Haas, CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, warned in his testimony released on Tuesday:
“If there is no tailor-made legislative solution that involves public participation in public discussions, then the United States will face the risk of introducing too cumbersome laws and regulations.
This may actually push cryptocurrency-related activities ‘underground’, or on offshore exchanges with few or no compliance plans. “
This hearing will be of great importance to the cryptocurrency industry and is expected to be closely watched. The current situation facing the industry is that U.S. lawmakers publicly pressure the executives of cryptocurrency companies to defend their company’s business and clarify in detail their ideas on how to regulate these businesses.
A number of executives advocated that the U.S. government should have looser policies
Brian Brooks, CEO of blockchain technology services company Bitfury, stated:
“There have been many such examples in history. U.S. regulatory decisions have promoted legal activities abroad, but have harmed the interests of American investors, innovators, and workers. There is a reason why cryptocurrency talent is no longer concentrated in Silicon Valley. “
The rapid growth of cryptocurrencies, especially Stablecoin, has attracted the attention of regulators. If supervision is not proper, then cryptocurrency may put the financial system at risk. Policymakers such as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler also worry that these products may be used for illegal purposes. Or lead to unsuspecting consumers being used by others.
In November last year, a working group headed by the US Treasury Department recommended that Congress pass a law stating that “stable coins” can only be issued by banks and other companies with deposit insurance. Analysts said that Wednesday’s hearing may send a good signal of how likely it is for Congress to discuss any such digital currency legislation.
Cryptocurrency company executives welcome clear regulatory rules, but not too strict
Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle Internet Financial, a payment and consumer finance startup based on blockchain technology, said:
“Stablecoins and the Internet endogenous capital market are not’too big to fail’. But they are indeed too big to be ignored. The policy framework needs to support an open and competitive competitive environment and allow new technologies to flourish.”
Proponents of “stable currency” believe that this type of cryptocurrency can provide a reliable, low-cost, and instantaneous method of global fund transfer. Therefore, it may bring revolutionary changes to payment. Cryptocurrency company executives said that the United States should play a leading role in promoting this technology, just as U.S. rules allowed the Internet to flourish in the early growth phase of the 1990s.
Denelle Dixon, head of the Stella Development Foundation, stated in the prepared testimony:
“Let us work together to ensure that U.S. policymakers lay the foundation for the regulatory prospects of this technology and develop a fruitful and wise global regulatory roadmap. I hope we can all agree on one thing. Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. It shouldn’t be a buzzword that is tossed around, and therefore incites people’s fear of the unknown.”