Leaked copy of US draft bill shows DeFi and DAOs under regulatory lens

A leaked copy of a United States draft bill concerning cryptocurrency started doing the rounds on Twitter earlier on Tuesday. The 600-page copy of the leaked bill highlights some of the key areas of concern for regulators including decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and crypto exchanges.

— slam (@bot_slam) June 7, 2022

User protection seems to be the primary focus of regulators, with policies intended to require any crypto platform or service provider to legally register in the U.S, be it a DAO or DeFi protocol.

This could highly curtail chances for anonymous crypto projects to progress in the United States. Any crypto platform not registered in the country would be liable for taxes, and the definition of DeFi still seems vague.

The leaked draft bill also tries to offer more clarity on securities laws as they relate to digital assets, a demand that has been persistent from the crypto community and lawmakers alike. According to the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission’s definition of a commodity, if there is any debt, equity, profit revenue or dividend of any variety, then it is expressly not a digital asset commodity.

 Related: 30% crypto tax becomes law in India following Finance Bill approval

The new draft bill proposes to increase exchange compliance costs, which in turn could lead to an increase in exchange fees. Any protocol or platform that trades a single digital asset would be categorized as an exchange, meaning that automated market makers would fall under the same category.

The bill further ensures that exchanges cannot liquidate users’ funds in cases of bankruptcy and adds that they must issue terms of services for consumers to agree to before using their services.

The leaked draft bill proposes clear policies to bring the nascent crypto market under the purview of the law. Many experts have pointed out that even though the listed policies seem to encourage strict oversight, it’s only a draft.

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PS- Since this is just the first form of a bill, this is when lobby groups will start to get involved and help try and shape it and iron out some of the clunky language that would be problematic, so it isn’t all hope lost. There is good intent here.

— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) June 7, 2022

Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus also commented on the leaked bill and suggested that the new policies would be tough on DeFi, DAOs and anonymous projects. 

all they really gotta do is go hard after exchanges and the party is over

— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) June 7, 2022