US Congress needs to take control of crypto legislation

According to Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a prominent U.S. crypto industry nonprofit, the United States Congress needs to take control of crypto legislation and make it a more "open process" where the entire marketplace is looked at "comprehensively." This recommendation comes from Smith, who serves as the president of the Blockchain Association.

During an interview with Bloomberg on February 22, 2019, Smith said that the cryptocurrency business need U.S. politicians to lead crypto legislation, despite the fact that this would make the process "extremely long." In the meanwhile, regulators will "step in."

Smith mentioned that despite regulators "moving very quickly," progress on legislation is happening "behind closed doors," implying that it is essential for more industry involvement in a "open process," which would involve Congress. He said this to suggest that it is vital for more industry involvement in a "open process."

Smith is of the opinion that "very particular facts and circumstances" are at the root of the problem with legislators taking the lead on legislation via enforcement actions and settlements.

She stated that it is a tough situation for Congress to be in at the present due to the fact that many people in Washington, D.C. who "were close" to the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX feel "burned" and "betrayed" over the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022.

Smith is optimistic that stablecoin legislation will soon be implemented in the United States because, according to Smith, Congress has been looking into it "since 2019" and "the work has been done." She said that it "came close" to occurring the year before, just before to the failure of FTX.

She went on to say that the dangers associated with cryptocurrencies are distinct from those associated with conventional financial services, and that as a result, regulators need to spend more time looking at market regulation and "tailor to those risks."

Smith suggested that stablecoin and "market side" regulation should be a higher priority than focusing on legislating crypto-related criminal activity, saying that public ledgers make it "much more transparent" than what we see in the traditional financial system. This idea stemmed from Smith's assertion that stablecoins and "market side" regulation were more important than focusing on legislating crypto-related criminal activity.

This comes after the chief policy officer of the Blockchain Association, Jake Chervinsky, took to Twitter on February 15 to state that regardless of how many enforcement actions the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission bring, they are "bound by legal reality." Chervinsky also stated that "neither" has the authority to "comprehensively regulate crypto." This news comes after Chervinsky made these statements.