Two New Crypto Bills Introduced Yesterday, Will They Become Law?

Two new crypto bills were introduced yesterday, the Digital Commodity Exchange Act and the Security Clarity Act by Rep. K Michael Conaway and Rep. Tom Emmer as we are reading more in the latest cryptocurrency news.

While the two new crypto bills could really change the world of crypto, neither will likely become a law soon. People usually hear about legislation addressing cryptocurrency or blockchain technology for a good reason, is the type of legislation that goes far in the US Congress. Yesterday, however, two new crypto bills were introduced, The digital Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Act. The bills are looking to bring regulatory guidance but it doesn’t mean that they will become law.

The team at Coin Center have been working with Reps. Conaway and Emmer separately on these two bills for months. It's very gratifying to see them both introduced in Congress today. https://t.co/Lcxw3jwS4p

— jerrybrito (@jerrybrito) September 24, 2020

The DCEA bill proposed by Texas Representative K. Michael Conaway aims to create a national regulatory framework for crypto exchanges to opt in, overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Coin Center Executive Director Jerry Brito praised the bill saying that the “innovators and entrepreneurs get greater clarity and more regulatory options while investors benefit from increased supervision of markets.”

Gabriel Shapiro, a tech attorney said:

 “A proposed unified framework for registration of [cryptocurrency exchanges] makes a lot of sense to me as an alternative to the current fragmented money services business regulations faced by exchanges.”

The second bill by Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer (Security Clarity Act) aims to separate the investment contracts from the resultant tokens and to provide clarity to digital currency creators about whether their products will be considered as securities. Brito also called it the smartest approach “we have seen to provide clarity about how securities law applies to digital assets.” However, Shapiro disagreed:

 “It misunderstands and obfuscates existing securities laws by assuming that the only time the securities laws are relevant to token-trading is when tokens are presold pursuant to a SAFT. It is essentially an attempt to ‘bail-out’ the failed SAFT model of token financing after it has been proven in federal court to be premised on a total misunderstanding of the securities laws.”

The members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate introduced about 13,418 pieces of Legislation when the 116^th Congress was sated in 2019. Only 1392 of those proceeded to the House Floor for consideration. About 158 of all the 13,418 proposed bills have been enacted into law which marks 1 percent.