US congressmen launch coalition to support cryptocurrency legislation

What’s new? US House of Representatives members Ritchie Torres and Tom Emmer have launched a bipartisan Congressional Crypto Caucus initiative to promote crypto-friendly policies. It will unite supporters of digital assets in the lower house of Congress and mobilize them to support a number of bills that are already pending, addressing aspects such as regulation of stablecoin issuers and market structures.

Source: X.com

What else is known?

“We hope to build a unified, bipartisan coalition to cement America’s leadership in the future of digital assets and blockchain innovation,” Torres noted.

In a commentary on FOX, Emmer explained that the initiative was launched to fulfill the request of millions of voters who supported crypto-friendly candidates in the November election.

Already, the coalition’s strength is needed to pass legislation to provide a regulatory framework for the industry. Recently, two separate bills were introduced in the House of Representatives to bring clarity to the use of stablecoins.

The importance of these bills has been stated in the upper chamber of Congress as well. In a press conference last month, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said that the bills on stablecoins and market structure should pass the Senate and get to the president’s desk by April.

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Torres, a Democrat, and Emmer, a Republican, are longtime supporters of cryptocurrencies, and both have also criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), previously headed by Gary Gensler, for its crackdown on the industry.

For example, Torres called for an investigation into the commission because of its “haphazard and heavy-handed” approach to regulating the crypto market. Emmer authored a bill to remove the head of the SEC due to numerous abuses.

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After Donald Trump’s inauguration, crypto advocates Mayr Uyeda as chairman and Hester Peirce as head of the cryptocurrency task force took over leadership positions at the SEC. The commission has already dropped investigations and withdrawn lawsuits against a number of crypto firms, including exchanges Coinbase, Gemini and Uniswap, wallet MetaMask, NFT marketplace OpenSea, and broker Robinhood.