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House Democratic leaders say vote on crypto bill won’t be whipped
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Top Democrats “strongly oppose” HR 4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) Act, but aren’t whipping the vote.
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FIT21, supported by digital asset organizations like Coinbase, provides a regulatory framework, defining digital assets and expanding the authority of the CFTC.
House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member David Scott (D-G.) – the top Democrats on their respective committees – sent a email to Democratic members of the House of Representatives saying they “strongly oppose” HR 4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), but do not whip their members against the bill Politico reported.
Waters and Scott say they oppose the bill because it undermines established legal precedents and creates uncertainty in the traditional securities market.
“This language undermines decades of legal precedent and case law, thereby creating uncertainty in our traditional securities market,” the Democratic Whip’s office wrote in an email. first obtained by Politico.
The email states that the bill provides a safe harbor in which entities can file an “intent to register” if they meet certain requirements, which they say protects them from the rules and regulations of securities laws until the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finalize new rules.
All of this “weakens investor protections and opens the door to fraud and market manipulation,” the email said.
A “Dear Colleague” The letter posted on the House Financial Services Committee Democrats’ page deepens the two leaders’ opposition to the bill, calling it “a law not fit for purpose.”
A numbered list said the bill would create “a pathway for ‘investment contract assets’ without an alternative regulator, meaning virtually no law or regulation would govern them.”
A Democratic aide told CoinDesk lawmakers would have a briefing with the SEC on Tuesday morning.
The bill, if signed into law, would prevent shareholders from suing publicly traded companies, preempt state regulations regarding digital assets, weaken fiduciary requirements and undermine capital markets, the letter said .
The email from the Democratic whip’s office also urges lawmakers to vote against H.R. 192, a bill introduced by Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a currency digital central bank. The bill has an “overly broad definition” for CBDCs, the email said, and “raises concerns that the bill could harm the Fed’s ability to conduct monetary policy.”
The story continues
FIT21 is supported by a coalition of digital asset organizations and companies, including Coinbase, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz and 50 others, because it provides a regulatory framework for the digital asset sector, its supporters say, something the U.S. currently lacks. United.
The bill creates a definition of whether a digital asset is a security or a commodity, expands the CFTC’s authority to register and regulate digital commodities, and requires the CFTC and SEC to jointly issue rules for assets not otherwise classified.