Senate Banking Committee to Hold Hearing on Crypto Regulation

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain next week.

The committee said in a press release that it would hold an open session titled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain” on July 30, though it is unclear if this would be a fact-finding mission or if any specific pieces of legislation would be discussed.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, representing the Blockchain Association; Rebecca Nelson, a member of the Congressional Research Service specializing in international trade and finance; and Mehrsa Baradaran, a law professor at the University of California Irvine School of Law will testify as expert witnesses.

The hearing will be livestreamed.

The Senate Banking Committee has held a number of hearings around the space, with the most recent taking place last week, focused on Facebook’s Libra.

Members asked David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s crypto project and the CEO of its Calibra subsidiary, a number of pointed questions about the project, but rarely brought up bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Instead, Senators took pains to distinguish between the broader crypto ecosystem and Facebook’s efforts specifically, indicating they may better understand the technology and the asset class than they have in years past.

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