With hopes for crypto legislation dimming, Trump’s regulators step into the fray

Por Declan Harty and Aiden Reiter — POLITICO – TOP Stories

The Senate’s failure to move on a watershed cryptocurrency bill has shifted the focus to President Donald Trump’s top Wall Street regulators.

Over the past few months, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig have been laying the groundwork for a regulatory blitz intended to provide new rules for the industry. The collapse of the bill, known as the Clarity Act, on Tuesday has brought new urgency to their work.

“We moved the ball forward, and now it’s time for the SEC and CFTC to set clear rules of the road for digital assets until Congress legislates,” Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said.

The coming sprint of agency crypto rules could bring the wild world of crypto further into the mainstream financial system. Yet it would also set the stage for a renewed partisan battle. Democrats, wary of the agencies’ friendly posture toward crypto firms, have expressed deep reservations over Atkins and Selig going it alone.

Trump rode into power two years ago with the promise of turning the U.S. into a crypto nirvana, a vow built in part on establishing a new regulatory regime tailored to the more than $2 trillion digital assets market. But with the Clarity Act now stalled and likely dead, the SEC and CFTC represent the next — and potentially last — hope for fulfilling such a promise any time soon.

“President Trump promised to deliver a future-proof crypto asset regulatory market structure one way or the other, and we will help him get the job done using our existing statutory authorities,” Selig said in a statement Wednesday. “The CFTC is locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance.”

But just as Republican lawmakers and the White House did, Atkins and Selig may run into fierce resistance in the weeks and months ahead. Some Wall Street giants have suggested they’ll be watching to see whether the pair will let crypto firms encroach on their businesses without having to follow the same rules.

What’s more, even if successful, the fate of the regulators’ plans is not entirely in their control. The Clarity Act would have provided cover for the agencies’ crypto rules in the courts and from future Democratic administrations that want to crack down on the industry. But without the bill, those risks could loom over the SEC’s and CFTC’s plans.

“With or without legislation, we will act decisively within the SEC’s statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors and for the entrepreneurs shaping our technological future,” Atkins wrote on social media Wednesday. “Stay tuned.”

Atkins and Selig are expected to continue pushing the financial markets’ transition to 24-hour trading days, a crypto hallmark. Both agencies are examining whether long-standing rules should be updated for crypto-based markets. And Atkins’ SEC is expected to soon unveil a highly anticipated effort aimed at allowing for the trading of U.S. stocks through crypto technology, a plan that has drawn concern from traditional financial firms like GOP megadonor Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities.

The SEC has already launched the effort: In August, the agency floated a new regulatory framework for crypto startups and executives looking to raise money through digital assets.

Bank regulators are also working to implement a law that Congress passed last year that created a regulatory structure for stablecoins, a type of digital currency pegged to the dollar.

While crypto groups expressed disappointment Tuesday, they vowed to continue the fight in Congress and work with the agencies to refine potential future regulation.

“We intend to keep our members mobilized. We will keep making this case in the media. And we will work tirelessly to support and share expertise with the SEC and CFTC as they move forward with important regulatory guidance,” Summer Mersinger, CEO of crypto trade group the Blockchain Association, said.

Banks and their trade associations who pushed back against the Senate bill also want to work with the agencies to establish rules around trading digital assets.

“The nation’s banks continue to support creating a strong, durable regulatory framework for digital assets that will set the course for U.S. global leadership for decades to come,” read a joint statement by the major bank trade groups after the vote in the Senate. “We stand ready to work with all stakeholders to achieve this important goal.”

Still, there is a slim chance that Congress can get something through this year — and some on Capitol Hill are convinced that doing so is the only reliable way to go about this massive regulatory shift.

“I wouldn’t read a lot into [the SEC and CFTC] right now. I’d read into it that you got a strong will on the part of Republicans and probably enough Democrats to get [Clarity] done if they want to sit down and really get it done,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told POLITICO. “There’s only so far [the agencies] can go, and it’s not addressing a lot of the core issues.”

But, in all likelihood, Atkins and Selig will have their work cut out for them. Adopting new rules usually takes their agencies between a year and a half to two years, start to finish. And while both have already started their efforts behind the scenes, the SEC and CFTC will face a tight clock to finish their work before the 2028 presidential election risks muddying up their path forward.

“The Senate has voted and we have a different type of clarity,” wrote Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at crypto firm Coinbase, on social media. “It’s time for agencies to step forward and for crypto voters to make their voice heard.”

Katherine Hapgood contributed to this report.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories