US crypto bill may not pass the Senate this year, Lummis says

The U.S. Senate is unlikely to vote on the bipartisan cryptocurrency bill this year, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis said Tuesday at the Bloomberg Crypto Summit. 

Fast facts

• “It’s a big topic, it’s comprehensive, and it’s still new to many U.S. senators,” Lummis said in a pre-recorded interview played at the Tuesday event, adding that it may be difficult for lawmakers to digest given the large scope of the bill.
• The bill, co-sponsored by Lummis and Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, classifies decentralized digital assets as commodities, placing them under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• “Right now, [lawmakers are] trying to work out with the regulators, into what jurisdictions the assets [digital assets] fall under,” Lilya Tessler, Sidley Austin Head of FinTech Blockchain Group, told ForkastEditor-in-Chief Angie Lau last month.  
• The proposal also captures tax implications, securities laws and banking regulations.
• “It will be a defining moment for the crypto industry when we witness definitions such as ‘digital asset’ and ‘payment stablecoin’ being amended into the United States Code, the literal books of the law,” Michael Shing, director of risk management of Taipei-based fiat-crypto exchange XREX, wrote in a Forkast commentary.

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