The US Congress is starting to question this whole crypto thing

Hundreds of thousands investors have just collected billions in their collective electronic pockets. Yet crypto remains the untouchable queen in the antiquated marble halls of the US Capitol.

Of course, a handful of lawmakers are waving — or at least limping — red flags after FTX cryptocurrency exchange has imploded earlier this month. Even like hundreds of millions of dollars the value of happiness, pensions, and even basic health care has been erased with a cunning blink of a brother’s eye, Congress is cool, calm, and collectively, well, dumb.

“It’s not really a question that I know well,” says Bernie Sanders, the independent US senator from Vermont who plays a Democrat every four years.

“I don’t really understand technology,” says U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a tech-savvy Republican from Missouri.

House Democratic leaders seem to be on the same (if archaic) page. Asked about plans to deal with the volatile world of cryptocurrencies after the collapse of FTX, US Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), the current House Democratic Caucus Chairman and (presumed) future leader of the House Democrats , be cautious. “Well, I think that’s a question that I presume will be taken up by the Financial Services Committee,” he says.

Talking to lawmakers, it looks like Congress is still wrestling with the definition of what “money” is, even though most of us have moved way past the nation’s representatives and continue to ask when we’ll get our money back, digital or otherwise. . And despite the current crypto meltdown, according to Jeffries and many other powerful party leaders, it’s time to kill.

“There’s a whole host of issues that I think we plan to work on, and I can imagine the cryptocurrency industry situation will be one of them going forward,” Jeffries adds.

According to U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), the rise of cryptocurrencies and the dangers that come with them have taken Congress by surprise.

“I think a lot of congressmen assumed that the digital asset industry might be on the back burner because it’s immature,” Lummis says. “It is growing faster than people imagine. And now, with Elon Musk announcing that he could use Twitter as a payment platform, I mean, this industry is much more mature than people realize. It’s time. It is time to regulate. It’s time to put buffets on it.

Lummis is not just a Republican. She is Wyoming, a state that aims to be the “crypto capital” the United States. She was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. Like the caucus itself, it has turned to MAGA in recent years, but its libertarian streaks remain pronounced – and crypto is the best thing since sliced ​​gold bars for the laissez-faire Lummises of the world.

As anti-regulation as Lummis is, she has been at the forefront of calling for restraints — “regulations,” even though that is still considered a four-letter word in most Republican circles. She wants bumpers, at the very least.

“There will always be companies dealing with digital assets that fail even after they’re regulated, but at least we’ll have protections and reporting for consumers – and the most important thing is to separate customer assets from customer assets. ‘financial institution.’” Lummis says. “What happened with FTX is that they were lending client assets.”