Sec Commissioner Says Crypto Is ‘helping To Nudge Reassessment’ On...

The SEC's crypto task force held its sixth roundtable event, hosting representatives from digital asset advocacy groups and other organizations.

Atkins said crypto had the potential to become “the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever invented,” depending on how the US government handled regulation. He cited the SEC’s previous approach, “treating every wallet like a broker,” requiring more transactions to be reported.

Peirce echoed Atkins in her statement, suggesting that regulators need to “rethink when and how financial transactions are surveilled” as the crypto market grows.

Related: US SEC’s Crenshaw takes aim at crypto in final weeks at agency

Amid the roundtable discussion and the imminent departure of SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, lawmakers in the US Senate are running out of time to address legislation to establish a comprehensive digital asset market structure before 2026.

Early drafts of the bill indicated that it could grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission greater authority over cryptocurrency and alter the SEC’s regulatory priorities.

After a market structure bill, named the CLARITY Act, passed the House of Representatives in July, members of the US Senate have been engaged in negotiations to get the legislation onto the floor for a vote before the end of the year. As of Monday, this goal by Republican leaders appeared unlikely to be achieved.

The Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee have both released discussion drafts of their respective versions of the bill. However, as of the time of publication, no markup hearing appeared on the banking committee’s schedule, with the chamber set to break for the holidays in the next few days.

Source: CoinTelegraph